A day after posting a win on the debt ceiling bill, President Joe Biden was handed a stinging rebuke by the Democratic-controlled Senate as the chamber passed a measure that overturned his student debt relief plan.
In a 52-46 vote, the Senate said no on a plan to give 40 million borrowers up to $20,000 in loan forgiveness.
A pair of Democrats joined the Republican delegation in voting to nix the proposal – Jon Tester (D-Montana), Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) – along with independent Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.).
Both Pennsylvania senators – Bob Casey Jr. and John Fetterman – voted against the proposal. Only 50 votes were required to adopt the proposal and overcome the filibuster, as it was a Congressional Review Act (CRA) measure.
The debt relief is currently set to cost taxpayers an estimated $400 billion. The Congressional Budget Office recently estimated that if the measure nixing it passed, it would reduce the deficit over 10 years by $320 billion.
In a statement, Manchin said the nation “simply cannot afford to add another $400 billion to the national debt.”
“There are already more than 50 existing student loan repayment and forgiveness programs aimed at attracting individuals to vital service jobs, such as teachers, health care workers, and public servants. This Biden proposal undermines these programs and forces hard-working taxpayers who already paid off their loans or did not got to college to shoulder the cost,” he said.
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4 Responses
The students KNEW the repayment costs of their loans when they signed their promissory notes. Teach them a lesson in ACCOUNTABILITY and require them to PAY BACK what they borrowed!
True…but the government made a lot of money with my interest. I know I paid back my initial student loan three times. Maybe they should cancel interest rates or reduce the interest rates drastically instead.
I do agree with you on the reducing interest rates, as I feel that student loan interest rates should be on the lower end of the scale to encourage young people to pursue higher education. But I in no way support loan and debt cancellation.
So Manchin decides from his Yacht that there are enough student loan forgiveness programs like the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program that had 95 percent of the applicants not get forgiven until the media started to get involved. The students are always pushed aside and Manchin saying if others paid then no one should be forgiven is like Marie Antoinette said during the French Revolution “let them eat cake.”