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President Biden called Republicans ‘hypocritical’ for opposing his student loan plan as he touted the new website where Americans can apply to have their debt forgiven.
Individuals looking to cash in can apply at Studentaid.gov. A beta version of the site launched over the weekend but the official application is now live, though legal challenges against the plan are still ongoing.
‘As soon as I announced my student debt plan they started attacking it and saying all kinds of things. Their outrage is wrong and it’s hypocritical,’ Biden said in public remarks on Tuesday.
‘Especially not the same Republicans who voted for a $2 trillion tax cut in the last admin that mainly benefitted wealthy Americans and the largest corporations. and didn’t pay for a penny of it and racked up a deficit,’ he added, referring to the 2017 tax cuts under President Trump.
‘I don’t want to hear from Republican officials again who had hundreds of thousands of dollars even millions of dollars in pandemic relief loans, the PPP loans, but who now attack the working class middle Americans for getting relief.’
More than 40 million borrowers are eligible for relief, while some 20 million could have their remaining balance forgiven thanks to the plan, which is expected to cost taxpayers some $400 billion, according to Congressional Budget Office estimate.
President Biden called Republicans ‘hypocritical’ for opposing his student loan plan as he touted the new website where Americans can apply to have their debt forgiven
Individuals looking to cash in can apply at Studentaid.gov. A beta version of the site launched over the weekend but the official application is now live, though legal challenges against the plan are still ongoing
Over 8 million have already applied to have their student loans canceled but borrowers have until the end of 2023 to do so. In August the Biden administration announced $10,000 in student loan forgiveness and up to $20,000 for Pell Grant recipients.
Government officials said the goal of the program currently is to get a significant portion of the debt relief processed ahead of January, when student loan payments will begin following a multi-year freeze that began at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Standing in the way of possible loan forgiveness are the several lawsuits facing the Department of Education that challenge the policy.
A US district judge may soon decide whether to temporarily block the program from going into effect. A motion for a preliminary injunction was heard Wednesday.
A block could put loan cancellation on hold until the judge issues a final ruling on the case.
The White House argues it can waive or modify loan balances under the HEROES Act of 2003. The law, passed after the September 11th terrorist attacks, allows the Secretary of Education to waive or modify student financial aid programs in times of war or national emergency.
The administration argues the covid pandemic qualifies as a national emergency.
Republicans have not only called the plan unconstitutional without an act of Congress but have railed against its price tag and cried that it leaves out those who were responsible and already paid off all their debts.
The White House Twitter account launched an offensive calling out Republican who had their paycheck protection program loans forgiven.
The list started with Greene.
‘Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene had $183,504 in PPP loans forgiven,’ the White House said, highlighting a Newsmax clip of the Georgia Republican complaining it was ‘completely unfair’ the taxpayers were shouldering ‘great big student loan debt for some college student that piled up massive debt going to some Ivy League school.’
Beyond Greene, the White House Twitter account also name-dropped GOP Reps. Vern Buchanan, Markwayne Mullin, Kevin Hern, Mike Kelly and Matt Gaetz.
Instead of student loans, Gaetz was critical of the White House sending another $3 billion in aid to Ukraine, to bolster the country’s forces against Russia’s invasion.
The Florida congressman had ‘$482,321 in PPP loans forgiven,’ the White House said.
Kelly, a Pennsylvania Republican, had nearly $1 million in PPP loans forgiven – $987,237 – and had tweeted, ‘Asking plumbers and carpenters to pay off the loans of Wall Street advisors and lawyers isn’t just unfair. It’s also bad policy.’
He had shared a Fox News article headlined: ‘Biden announces student loan handout as national debt soars.’
Hern, Mullin and Buchanan each had more than $1 million in PPP loans forgiven – with Buchanan’s amount topping more than $2.3 million.
‘We do not need farmers and ranchers, small business owners, and teachers in Oklahoma paying the debts of Ivy League lawyers and doctors across the U.S.,’ Mullin wrote.
He had ‘over $1.4 million in PPP loans forgiven.’
Hern had more than $1 million in PPP loans forgiven.
‘To recap, in the last two weeks, the “Party of the People” has supercharged the IRS to go after working-class Americans, raised their taxes, and forced them to pay for other people’s college degrees,’ the Oklahoma Republican had tweeted.
Florida Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz had gone after the administration, not for student loans, but for spending another $3 billion on a new defense package for Ukraine
Biden supporters marveled that the official White House Twitter account would take on Republicans so boldly. Critics, however, noted that PPP loans were offered after businesses were forced to close on government orders – but the government never ordered students to plunge themselves into debt for an education.
Republican Sen. Marco Rubio, writing an op-ed for Fox Business, said that Biden’s ‘student debt forgiveness program could not be more different’ than the PPP loans ‘despite his lame attempts to draw similarities between the two.’
‘Unlike my payroll grants, forgiving student loan debt won’t create jobs, save small businesses, or reopen the American economy,’ Rubio said.
‘This is a handout that primarily benefits the highly educated and already well-off, the laptop liberals and Marxist misfit activists who have never run a business, made payroll, or worried about something other than what pronouns to use,’ the Florida senator added. ‘It shows where the Democrats’ priorities truly lie – and it’s not with working Americans.’
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