cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/21841560
this post was submitted on 27 Oct 2024
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Claiming Biden did "nothing" with PSLF is way off. Under Bush, PSLF was a mess—only about 7,000 people got their loans forgiven, thanks to an insane 98% rejection rate. Since Biden took office and reformed PSLF, over a million borrowers have received forgiveness, with his administration introducing temporary waivers, fixing processing errors, and expanding eligibility to previously blocked borrowers.
You're saying that he both should have used existing means to forgive debt, but also criticizing him for using existing means to forgive debt. The fact that he did both and basically brought PSLF back from the dead in order to help borrowers after his initial attempt failed speaks to his significant commitment to this issue, so it seems like an odd issue to bring up to try to support the case that Biden has done nothing, and it's all theater. Tell that to the millions helped so far.
He basically picked up an old, rusty knife in the yard, hardened the metal, cleaned it, sharpened it, polished it, honed it, replaced the hilt, and put it to work slashing student loan debt. Why throw out a busted tool if it can be fixed?
Biden’s fixes also significantly overhauled and streamlined the entire process for current and future borrowers. Comparing what PSLF was under Bush to what it’s become under Biden is like night and day—Biden’s updates turned an empty promise into an actual effective tool to deal with the unsustainable student-loan burden. And that's only to speak of what he's done with PSLF, not all the things he's tried, the other programs he's implemented, and how consistent he's been on this issue since he took office.
There would have been nobody under Bush that would have qualified for a loan forgiveness while Bush was president. It was a 10 year program. He was already well out of office before the first ones were even eligible to be dismissed.
I didn't say the forgiveness happened under bush. The program began in 2007. Until Biden took office, there was a 98% denial rate and 7,000 borrowers had completed it. By 2023, that number increased to well over a million, partially by correcting unjustified denials and allowing for the retro-application of qualifying payments. You think there was just a coincidental 14,000% increase in PSLF loans forgiven in Biden's first two years? Or maybe it's related to the $175 Billion in loan forgiveness for the 4.8 Million Americans that received it? Incidentally, PSLF is less than half of the total student-debt burden eased under Biden.
Again, there's a lot to criticize about Biden. Why you all are digging your heels in about something for which, on the whole, he's proactively done a lot about (and with relative succes despite robust opposition), I'm not sure.
So this feels like alot of words to say he enforced existing laws from 2007, and did not in any way shape or form do what he said he would while on campaign. Did I miss anything? Oh that he could have done it the slow way, and after 3 years whats our progress? Oh he didn't even send in the application.
Nah, he tried to do what he said he would. Several states with absolutely no fucking standing sued on behalf of companies that stated they didn't wanna be part of the suit, and took the case to the SCOTUS, who said "oh, out of literally whole-cloth interpretations of the law that make no sense, we decide that large-scale loan forgiveness is not purview of the Department of Education, and can only be done with a law passed by Congress." Biden could've, and honestly should've, done it anyway after the immunity ruling, and said "it's an official act, you can't do shit", but saying "he didn't even try to do anything" is disingenuous.
Again his team told him that was gonna happen if he tried to make a new executive privilege. He has never applied to do it the long way, correct? Like acting like Joe Biden wasn’t disingenuous is disingenuous, like im sure idiot lemmycrats upvote you because it might make Harris look bad, but point to something he did that wasn’t already law? Again the debt cancellation you keep parroting that he accomplished was brought to you by George W Bush in 2007.
"point to something he did that wasn't already law".
Why? What he did was focus on it and make it happen. Nobody gives a shit who wrote the law in.
We also know that todays republicans tried everything under the sun to stop it for nothing but corporate interests. These loans were scams and theyre being erased.