Just in time for the election, some might think after reading the headline.
Despite this unprecedented level of loan forgiveness, the relief is still only a fraction of the nearly $2 trillion in outstanding student loan debt that Americans carry.
And the amount of debt cancellation so far falls short of the sweeping student debt relief that President Joe Biden had intended to implement as part of his broad-based loan forgiveness plan that the Supreme Court rejected last summer.
Still, top officials are touting the achievements and assuring borrowers that additional relief is coming.
Biden’s staff took to his X account to reiterate the claim
“My Administration has cancelled student debt for 3.6 million people through various actions, bringing the promise of higher education to more hardworking Americans,” said President Biden on X, formerly known as Twitter, on Tuesday. “And we’re going to keep going.”
—Over 14 million jobs added
—Fought to deliver relief to 3.6 million Americans by canceling $132 billion in student loan debt
—Established the first-ever White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention
—Small business boom across AmericaThe work continues in 2024. pic.twitter.com/M0FFJwCz4g
— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) December 30, 2023
Still, liberals see the attempts to pander to their beliefs are subpar, for a President who gives billions of dollars away to Ukraine every few months.
While the new program is still under development, draft regulations that the department released last month indicate that rather than providing broad-based cancellation to most borrowers, the new plan may be limited to certain groups of borrowers based on their loans, repayment histories, and circumstances.
Department officials contend that the Higher Education Act limits the scope of what they can do in terms of mass student loan forgiveness, and barring any new legislation passed by Congress to enact mass debt cancellation (which is highly unlikely), they must stay within the bounds of statutory authority.
However, advocates for borrowers and progressive Democrats have expressed concerns that the Biden administration’s new student loan forgiveness program may be too narrow.
Making promises and spending frivolously on unnecessary bills is what Democrats do.
Taxpayers foot bill for $23M in DOJ investigations into Trump, $6.4M Biden probe https://t.co/fghTmIyEJk
— Fox News (@FoxNews) January 6, 2024
Not to mention the millions taxpayers are paying to attack President Donald Trump.