OAN’s Roy Francis
9:05 AM – Friday, June 30, 2023
The Supreme Court has blocked the Biden Administration’s student loan debt handout program on Friday.
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The 6-3 ruling held that federal law does not allow the president to cancel the current federal student loan debt, which is roughly around $430 billion, without authorization from Congress.
The program would have forgiven up to $10,000 for qualified individuals who make under $125,000 per year and $20,000 for Pell Grant recipients. However, the program which was launched in August 2022, was blocked in November and put on hold by court orders.
“The Secretary’s plan canceled roughly $430 billion of federal student loan balances, completely erasing the debts of 20 million borrowers and lowering the median amount owed by the other 23 million from $29,400 to $13,600,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote. “Six States sued, arguing that the HEROES Act does not authorize the loan cancellation plan. We agree.”
Republicans had initially argued that President Joe Biden did not have the authority to unilaterally forgive student loans, saying that the plan would cost taxpayers around $400 billion to being with.
They further argued that the program would not be fair to those who had paid their way through college, repaid their loans or never attended, saying that they should not have to pay for someone else’s education.
A White House source said that President Joe Biden strongly disagrees with the decision and said that he blames Republicans for the decision. He also said that he plans to announce new actions to protect student loan borrowers later on Friday according to News Fox Digital.
Republicans had laid out their own plan to address the growing education costs in the country in June. The Senate Republicans had presented a plan that would make sure student understood the real costs of college before attending or accepting loans. The Republican plan would also cancel loan programs that “do not result in salaries that are high enough to justify those loans.”
“This would prevent some of the worst examples of students being exploited for profit. It would force schools to bring down cost and to compete for students. What an idea,” Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., said of the bill. “It would also protect students from getting buried in debt they can never, ever pay.”
The Biden administration had accepted around 16 million applicants as eligible for the program before it was put on hold by the court in 2022.
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