Biden has forgiven billions in student loans, but his allies say voters aren't giving him enough credit
The White House has been rolling out targeted relief programs that it says have now canceled $132 billion in student debt for more than 3.6 million Americans.
WASHINGTON — More than six months after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down President Joe Biden’s ambitious program to erase $430 billion in student loan debt, the White House has been rolling out smaller, more targeted relief programs that it says have now canceled $132 billion in debt for more than 3.6 million Americans.
At the time of the court's decision, it appeared that Biden wasn't going to be make good on one of the biggest promises he made to young voters, who helped propel him into the White House. But as he's gone about doing the same work more slowly, he seems to be getting little credit from those same voters.
On Friday, the administration said that it’s fast-tracking a key provision of the Saving on a Valuable Education plan — known as SAVE — that was scheduled to take effect this summer. Starting next month, borrowers enrolled in SAVE who took out less than $12,000 in loans and have been paying them back for at least 10 years will get their remaining debt canceled right away. With each additional $1,000 of debt, the window for forgiveness increases by a year. For example, a student who took out $13,000 in loans will now have their debt wiped out if they’ve been paying it back for 11 years, or in 12 years for those who borrowed $14,000 — and so on.
Separately, eligible borrowers don’t need to wait 10 years to get some financial benefit from the SAVE plan, which has a more generous formula for calculating income-based repayments than previous government programs. Most low-income borrowers will pay less. For example, a borrower making $38,000 a year with $25,000 in public student loans would see their payment drop from $134 to $43 a month, according to the Department of Education.
The White House said almost seven million borrowers have signed up for SAVE.
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