SCOTUS Rejects Biden's Student Loan Forgiveness Plan
SCOTUS on Friday voted 6-3 to strike down US Pres. Joe Biden's student loan forgiveness plan, which would have given $10K in loan relief to individuals making less than $125K a year, and $20K for Pell Grant recipients – a total of more than $430B.
Facts
- SCOTUS on Friday voted 6-3 to strike down US Pres. Joe Biden's student loan forgiveness plan, which would have given $10K in loan relief to individuals making less than $125K a year, and $20K for Pell Grant recipients – a total of more than $430B.1
- Nearly 26M borrowers had already applied for the forgiveness, which would have also forgiven loans for couples making less than $250K combined. Already 16M applications were approved, but due to legal battles, no loans had been forgiven.2
- The plan was announced last August under the Higher Education Relief Opportunities for Students (HEROES) Act, which allows the Sec. of Education "to alleviate the hardship that federal student loan recipients may suffer as a result of national emergencies," with the COVID pandemic qualifying as a hardship.3
- Chief Justice John Roberts wrote that the program should be struck down because it “not only nullifies existing provisions, but augments and expands them dramatically.”4
- Payments will restart in October, with a grace period for the first three months.5
- In response to the ruling, Biden said his administration is looking into a new route to student debt relief under the 1965 Higher Education Act.6
Sources: 1FOX News, 2New York Times, 3NPR Online News, 4CBS, 5POLITICO, and 6CNBC.
Narratives
- Republican narrative, as provided by Daily Wire. SCOTUS just saved the American people from Biden’s unconstitutional power grab. He never had the right to throw around $400B of taxpayer money like his own personal piggy bank without Congressional approval. Democrats will have to find another way to bribe young people for their votes.
- Democratic narrative, as provided by MSNBC. The HEROES Act is straightforward in granting the executive branch the authority it needs to assist citizens during a national crisis, including forgiving student loan debt during a pandemic. It’s SCOTUS that has made up a new legal approach and overstepped its bounds here, not the Biden administration.
