Biden’s Plans To Help People Pay Off College Loans Will Cost A “Unknown Sum,” Say Gop Lawmakers.
Even while the court has not yet ruled on President Joe Biden’s comprehensive plan to cancel student loans, some Republican senators are not holding back when it comes to attacking other measures for borrowers.
After his announcement to forgive up to $20,000 in student debt for federal borrowers was blocked by two separate federal courts, Republicans on the House education committee published a blog post on Monday claiming that Vice President Biden is “continuing to make false promises to students.” The post claimed that Biden’s statement was “continuing to make false promises to students.”
The lawmakers wrote that other policies that Biden has proposed and implemented, such as extending the student-loan payment pause and reforming student-loan repayment programs, will foot taxpayers with a bill in the future. While broad relief is the most widely discussed policy, the lawmakers wrote that other policies that Biden has proposed and implemented will cost taxpayers in the future.
According to what they wrote, “there is an untold sum that is about to be billed to the American people.” They were referring to Vice President Joe Biden’s new income-driven repayment plan, which would allow borrowers to pay no more than 5% of their discretionary income each month on their undergraduate student loans. This is a reduction from the current requirement of paying 10% of one’s income toward one’s student loans. Additionally, any remaining debt would be forgiven for borrowers after 10 years instead of 20.
“The Biden administration is pursuing mass student debt cancellation and wants to use your money to pay for it,” they stated in the blog post. “The Biden administration is after mass student loan cancellation.” “By doing so, he is misusing the executive authority that is granted to him by the Constitution, as well as subverting the process by which laws are drafted and the federal budget is paid.”
The issue of who has the right to make decisions has generated a lot of discussions. It has been argued that using the HEROES Act of 2003, which gives the Education Secretary the authority to waive or modify student-loan balances in connection with a national emergency like COVID-19, would be an overreach of authority, and as a result, the court has blocked the broad debt relief plan proposed by Vice President Biden. This is because lawsuits backed by conservatives have been filed against the plan.
The costs that have been associated with extending the student-loan payment pause that was first implemented under former President Donald Trump have been criticized for a long time by Republicans. Vice President Joe Biden just extended it for the sixth time through June 30 or until the lawsuits challenging the relief are resolved, whichever comes first. Republicans have long criticized the costs that have been associated with extending the pause. The Congressional Budget Office estimated in September that the plan would cost $400 billion, but as Insider has reported previously, this number is negligible in comparison to other significant expenditures such as the defense budget, which will cost $700 billion in 2022.
Even further, the Biden administration expressed concerns regarding the cost of continued relief, stating in a legal filing that extending the pause in student-loan payment is not ideal due to the cost that it would incur. This was done because the pause would continue. However, the administration and Democratic lawmakers have made it clear that any student debt relief is worth the cost to assist Americans in recovering from the pandemic and to work toward reforming a student-loan industry that has blocked borrowers from relief for years. This is the position that the administration has taken.
Last Monday, Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts stated on Twitter that former President Barack Obama and current President Donald Trump had both utilized the same ability to cancel student loans. “President Biden has the legal authority to eliminate student debt,” she said. “The sooner we defeat the groundless legal action brought forth by GOP authorities, the sooner we can provide relief from student debt to hard-working Americans,”
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