Although the Supreme Court struck down President Joe Biden’s signature student loan forgiveness program in late June, his administration has found ways to cancel more than $48 billion in debt since then.

The cancellations have come through existing federal student loan forgiveness programs, which are limited to specific categories of borrowers, such as public-sector workers, people defrauded by for-profit colleges, and borrowers who have paid for at least 20 years.

These programs are separate from the rejected forgiveness plan, which would have canceled about $430 billion of the $1.6 trillion of outstanding federal student loan debt all at one time.

The Biden administration has been granting student loan forgiveness through these existing programs on a rolling basis since coming into office and has discharged a total of $127 billion for nearly 3.6 million people to date.

  • FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    He’s cancelled student debt for a precious few, unilaterally, several times.

    I’m not sure why we’re pretending he needs Congress or SCOTUS, except that a lot of people just want to pretend he’s magically powerless to fulfill his campaign promises.

    • lolcatnip@reddthat.com
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      1 year ago

      He’s not pretending, you moron. He already tried forgiving student loan debt through executive orders and the courts blocked him.

    • mctoasterson@reddthat.com
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      1 year ago

      The executive doesn’t have limitless power, regardless of what various bell-ends on Lemmy seem to believe. And if you think that it should, I’d caution you to do a brief thought experiment and imagine what things will be like when someone with whom you disagree occupies the same office.