Biden is withdrawing his broader student-loan-forgiveness plans that were set to cancel debt for over 38 million borrowers (www.businessinsider.com)

submitted 13 hours ago by return2ozma@lemmy.world to c/politics@lemmy.world

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[-] SnotFlickerman 12 points 11 hours ago* (last edited 11 hours ago)

Hey dude, doing a one-time forgiveness of loans without figuring out why tuition costs are exploding beyond what is sustainable and leaving student loans as non-dischargeable in bankruptcy isn't a fucking solution.

Making student loans dischargeable via bankruptcy is.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bankruptcy_Abuse_Prevention_and_Consumer_Protection_Act#Legislative_history

https://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_votes/vote1091/vote_109_1_00044.htm?congress=109&session=1&vote=00044#position

The increase in Republican majorities in the Senate and House after the 2004 elections breathed new life into the bill, which was introduced in its current form by the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, Republican Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa. According to George Packer in his book The Unwinding, Joe Biden, Chris Dodd, and Hillary Clinton helped pass this bill. (Of the three, however, only Biden voted for the final bill. Dodd voted against, and Clinton did not vote.) The bill was supported by President George W. Bush. Tom DeLay also championed the legislation. The bill passed by large margins, 302–126 in the House and 74–25 in the Senate, and was signed into law by President Bush.

Biden was one of 18 Democrats who broke with party to pass this bill in 2005 that made it so you can't discharge your student loans in bankruptcy. Biden in particular, was pretty loud about supporting the creditors on this bill. I remember because I had just left college and had loans at this point in my life, and I was pretty frustrated by it, and Biden in particular.

The fact that he doesn't want to undo the biggest issue with student loans as they stand, considering it's a bill he voted for himself, speaks loudly to how he wasn't actually interested in solving the problem. Think about how much of a non-issue this would be if you could just file bankruptcy and make these loans go away.

But sure, it's scary Republicans blocking his worthless fucking joke of a plan, not that his plan was a joke and his work in the senate is literally the reasons that students can't just... file for bankruptcy to get out from under their student loans.

But fuck me for actually knowing the history of this issue, right??

[-] usernamesAreTricky@lemmy.ml 11 points 11 hours ago* (last edited 11 hours ago)

I don't disagree that Biden certain was problematic when in congress on student loans, but it's worth noting that the action he had planned to do was well beyond just one-time student loan forgiveness

He's lowered the bar for discharging student loans via bankruptcy via executive action. It shouldn't have been nearly impossible before, but it's now moved into the realm of at least sometimes possible now

In the fall of 2022, the U.S. Department of Education and the U.S. Department of Justice jointly released updated bankruptcy guidelines aimed at making the process for student loan borrowers less arduous

Previously, it was difficult, if not impossible, for most people to part with their education debt in a normal bankruptcy proceeding.

[...]

While the government used to fight discharge aggressively in almost every case, there is now a policy to agree when the borrower can show financial need and a history of good faith efforts to pay the loans said Latife Neu, a bankruptcy lawyer in Seattle.

“I’ve helped several people take advantage of the expanded ability to discharge their student loans in bankruptcy,” Neu added.

https://www.cnbc.com/2024/03/12/biden-makes-it-easier-to-forgive-student-debt-in-bankruptcy.html

He also tried to cap interest rates, and reduce the monthly payment requirements, increase federal student aid, etc.

Cutting monthly payments in half for undergraduate loans. The Department of Education is proposing a new income-driven repayment plan that protects more low-income borrowers from making any payments and caps monthly payments for undergraduate loans at 5% of a borrower’s discretionary income—half of the rate that borrowers must pay now under most existing plans. This means that the average annual student loan payment will be lowered by more than $1,000 for both current and future borrowers.

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2022/08/24/fact-sheet-president-biden-announces-student-loan-relief-for-borrowers-who-need-it-most/

this post was submitted on 22 Dec 2024

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