President Joe Biden gave a press conference Friday, slamming the Supreme Court decision effectively killing his $400 billion plan to cancel or reduce federal student loan debts for millions of Americans.
"The hypocrisy is stunning. You can’t help a family making $75,000 per year, but you can help a millionaire?” he exclaimed, launching into a tirade that blamed the GOP for the SCOTUS decision announced earlier today.
The "sharply divided" court voted to cancel the President's student loan debt plan in a 6-3 ruling on Friday morning.
“There are millions of Americans who feel disappointed and discouraged and even a little bit angry, and I must admit I am too," Biden said at the start of his address to the nation.
Biden's plan would have cost the government $400 billion over 30 years. He announced it last year, and 26 million people applied. 43 million had been eligible.
“We all supported the PPP (Paycheck Protection Program), which was designed to help business owners hurt by the pandemic. Some of the same Republicans got hundreds of thousands themselves in relief for the businesses they owned... Several got millions... All those loans were forgiven. But… my program is too expensive?” a very irate Biden singled out the GOP during his announcement to the public.
“I was trying to provide students with $10,000 to $20,000 in relief. On average, the amount forgiven in PPP was $70,000, and now a kid making $60,000, trying to pay their bills, asking for $10,000 in relief… come on, the hypocrisy is stunning.”
Biden blames republican party for nixing his debt relief program
Biden was as fiery as the 80-year-old President could get when he approached the topic, telling reporters and those watching: "Last year I announced my student debt relief plan… up to 10k for many borrowers and 20k for others…. 90 per cent of those making less than 75,000 a year would qualify, and no one making over $125,000 would quality… applications were set up... Notices sent out.. 16 million people have already been approved. The money was about to go out the door. Republicans and special interests stepped in and said no."
"These Republican officials just couldn’t bear the thought of providing relief for middle-class families," Biden said in a direct shot against the opposing party.
While Supreme Court justices argued that Biden "overstepped" his role as the nation's chief executive but disagreed, saying, “I think the court misinterpreted the Constitution.”
At the end of the conference, one fiery journalist asked the President why he gave out "false hope" to so many Americans - as so many had been counting on this program to go through, and millions had applied online.
Biden responded: "I didn’t give any false hope. What I did, I thought was appropriate, I thought would get done and be done, but Republicans snatched away the hope they were given."
“A Republican official said student loan relief is a giveaway to the privileged - do you hear that? The privilege! But I know who the borrowers are in this country, and so you do - It’s the couple putting off having a child until they can find a way to deal with their debt or the couple buying their first home…. Hope was on the horizon thanks to the relief I provided last year that the court snatched away," Biden snapped back at his critics.
President announces new way to delay repaying student loans, beginning a new program as this one failed
As Biden had spent over a year fighting for his student debt relief program to become a reality, this decision from the Supreme Court came as a blow to the administration - but the president claims that they're already working on another way to bring debt forgiveness to the public.
The president explained: "We are announcing today a new path to relief for as many borrowers as possible… a so-called Higher Education Act."
“Im directing my team to move as quickly as possible. Minutes ago, we already initiated the new approach," Biden said, naming Education Secretary Miguel Cardona as the person who will be working on the new plan.
“We know what many borrowers will need to make their hard choices with budgets being strained as they figure out how to pay their expenses this fall, normally, this could leave borrowers to fall into delinquency.
"That’s why we’re creating a temp 12-month on-ramp repayment program, not the same as the student loan pause that’s been in effect for 3 years, if you cannot, or miss a payment, this on-ramp will remove the threat of default or harming your credit.”
"This is not the same as the student loan pause," Biden said. "Monthly payments will be due," bills will go out, and interest will start accruing.
"If you can pay your monthly bills, you should,” but the idea of the program is that if you cannot pay your bills, at least you won’t be ruining your credit - which the President mentioned is another thing that cripples young individuals as they are starting out in life.
Conservative-learning Supreme Court decision leaves young Americans reeling
It would have cancelled $10,000 in student loan debt for those making less than $125,000 per year or households with less than $250,000 in collective income.
Those who received Pell Grants would have garnered an additional $10,000 in forgiven debt.
Biden argued that the bipartisan 2003 HEROES Act gave him the power to enact the plan.
But the judicial body, which enjoys a conservative majority, disagreed.
Writing for the court, Chief Justice John Roberts said: "Six states sued, arguing that the HEROES Act does not authorize the loan cancellation plan. We agree."
Now, college graduates must scramble to start making payments again in late August despite increasing inflation and an economic recession — the lingering effects of the Covid pandemic.
In a dissent with the court's two other liberal justices, Justice Elena Kagan wrote that the majority of the court "overrides the combined judgement of the Legislative and Executive Branches with the consequence of eliminating loan forgiveness for 43 million Americans."
