Today, President Joe Biden vetoed a measure from the House and Senate that would have overturned his plan to cancel large amounts of federal student loan debt for tens of millions of borrowers. The GOP-led House resolution, framed around the Congressional Review Act, sought to reverse the Education Department’s actions involving the use of executive action to erase student loans. Accepted by the Senate by a 52-46 margin, the measure nonetheless failed to sway the President.
“Congressional Republicans led an effort to pass a bill blocking my Administration’s plan to provide up to $20,000 in student debt relief to working and middle class Americans,” Biden’s social media account said. “I won’t back down on helping hardworking folks. That’s why I’m vetoing this bill.”
As a result, millions of student loan borrowers will continue to benefit from the relief offered by the Administration’s plan. It is estimated that at least $400 billion in loan debt could be forgiven and Biden has praised the effort as a way to assist working families who have been adversely affected by the challenges of the past year due to the COVID pandemic. This includes an ongoing freeze on federal student loan payments.
Designed to lift a financial burden that has weighed on many households, the Biden Administration assures that borrowers taking advantage of the student loan relief are doing so in compliance with the law and with the protections afforded to them by the Higher Education Act.
Biden has ignored the financial impact lifting the debt will have on an economy that’s barely holding on and suffering high inflation. That debt doesn’t just disappear, and we all saw what the free money being handed out during COVID did down the road.
Despite the President’s recent action, the legal future of the student loan plan remains uncertain. Supreme Court justices are expected to render a ruling on the plan this summer, which many experts believe will see it overturned. The only way to secure washing away student loan debt is for Congress to pass a bill, and when the Democrats were in charge, they still didn’t have the votes to do it.
When you hear Democrats scream about Republicans hurting America on issues like student loan forgiveness and guns, they need to be reminded of something. For two years, the Democrats had complete control of both chambers of Congress and the Executive Office. They could have passed any bill they wanted by killing the filibuster but they didn’t.
