Although the Supreme Court struck down President Joe Biden’s signature student loan forgiveness program in late June, his administration has found ways to cancel more than $48 billion in debt since then.
The cancellations have come through existing federal student loan forgiveness programs, which are limited to specific categories of borrowers, such as public-sector workers, people defrauded by for-profit colleges, and borrowers who have paid for at least 20 years.
These programs are separate from the rejected forgiveness plan, which would have canceled about $430 billion of the $1.6 trillion of outstanding federal student loan debt all at one time.
The Biden administration has been granting student loan forgiveness through these existing programs on a rolling basis since coming into office and has discharged a total of $127 billion for nearly 3.6 million people to date.
And he knew that thanks to centrists, he didn’t have the votes.
Was it Pelosi or AOC who decided which bills come to the floor? I get that you want to blame AOC for centrists’ resounding success in blocking loan forgiveness, but it’s a stretch at best.
Biden is still trying and not giving up after the very first setback. It’s no wonder members of his own party are primarying him from his right.