Biden Quietly Forgives Student Loans for Thousands of Government Workers While Millions of Others Remain Crushed by Debt – Opinion

Guest op-eds do not always reflect the opinions of the author. RedState.com.)

Throughout Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign, he pledged to tackle America’s student debt crisis by reducing the cost of attending college and canceling up to $10,000 of debt per borrower.

He has failed to deliver on these two counts more than a year after he was elected. Not only have he and Democrats in Congress failed to pass legislation forgiving student loan debt, data compiled by U.S. News & World Report indicate that “tuition rates at both private and public National Universities have increased by at least 2%” from the 2020-2021 school year to the 2021-2022 year.

However, despite these failures, one group has benefited substantially from the Biden administration’s student loan policies: nonprofit workers, the largest group of which is those employed by federal, state, or local governments.

While tens of millions of other Americans remain burdened with massive student loan debts, government and other nonprofit workers have enjoyed substantial amounts of student debt forgiveness, and at a rate we’ve never seen before, thanks to a combination of policies most voters know very little about.

Federal student loan borrowers can get their total student debt forgiven under the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program (PSLF). This program was created in 2007 by the College Cost Reduction and Access Act.

Prior to receiving forgiveness, many of these borrowers enroll in a federal income-based repayment plan, which ties student loan payment amounts to income, allowing borrowers to “pay” as little as $0 per month without penalties, and as much as 15% of a borrower’s monthly discretionary income.

Trump and Congress made an agreement following the development of the novel coronavirus early in 2020. TemporarilyStop paying federal student loans. But rather than require PSLF borrowers to continue making payments in order to make progress toward the 120-payment threshold, Trump and Congress allowed the paused “payments” to count.

Initially, the federal government’s stated goal was to provide several months of payment relief at the height of the pandemic, a time when millions of Americans were losing their jobs due to government-imposed lockdowns. It would not have had any impact on PSLF’s finances if the payment suspension had been temporary.

However, instead of allowing the “temporary” deadlines to pass, Biden has continued the pause It has been done three timesThe most recent pause since President Trump’s election was December 20, 2021 when the White House declared that it would extend the pause until May 1.

As a result, many student loan borrowers working for a government or other nonprofit organization will go at least two years without having to make a single federal student loan payment, all while the government counts those non-payments as “payments” under PSLF.

Data from U.S. Department of Education (USED) shows that more than 471,000 borrower, most of them government workers, have benefited from this policy. However, many more people could benefit if they filed the appropriate paperwork.

Additionally, USED data shows that more than 15,000 borrowers received total loan forgiveness through one of two PSLF programs, which ran from September 2020 to September 2021 at a cost exceeding $1.23 trillion.

But, it is possible that the USED data will be a mere drop in an ocean. Richard Cordray is the Chief Executive Officer of Federal Student Aid. He sent out a Feb. 9 note indicating that more than 60,000. Borrowers have received forgiveness through the PSLF program.

The average loan amount forgiven for borrowers under the PSLF program in the 2020-2021 period was $94,907, while those enrolled in Biden’s smaller Temporary Expanded Public Service Loan Forgiveness program received an average of $44,324 in loan forgiveness.

What percentage of voters realized that the promise of President Biden to address the student loan crisis and help reduce college costs was for a very small segment of borrowers? Most of them work for government agencies.

We may be able to find out in November.

 Justin Haskins ([email protected]) He is also the Director of The Socialism Research Center at The Heartland Institute, and co-author of The New York Times Bestseller Book. Joe Biden and The Rise of Twenty-First Century Fascism are the Great Reset.

About Post Author

Follow Us