(RepublicanNews.org) – The Biden administration’s student loan forgiveness initiative was given new life on August 14th when a Michigan Judge threw out a lawsuit that had been brought to block the effort. Judge Thomas Luddington said the arguments brought by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy and the Cato Institute did not hold water.
The plaintiffs had argued that in addition to being unconstitutional, Biden’s $39 billion plan violated the Administrative Procedure Act. Judge Luddington disagreed and Biden’s courtroom victory has now become one of several “alternative” paths the administration had said they would take since the Supreme Court struck down their initial plan in June.
Following his Michigan victory, President Biden released a statement saying that his administration’s plan would be successful regardless of the number of lawsuits brought against it. Biden chided Republican opposition specifically and referred to the “roadblocks” conservative legislators have put in his way.
Conservative Rep. Virginia Foxx, who chairs a House committee that oversees education matters, called Biden’s circumnavigation of the Supreme Court’s June ruling a “blatantly political attempt” that is “shameful.” The Republican’s July statement was suggesting that Biden’s plan was an effort to garner votes in the short term and that it would inevitably lead to “abusing taxpayers.”
The President’s initial plan would have forgiven between $10,000 and $20,000 in loans for those below a certain income threshold. After rejection from the nation’s highest court, the administration changed tactics and announced an alternative plan.
Monthly payments are slated to be lowered from 10 to 5 percent of an individual’s discretionary income and the timeline for loan forgiveness has been dropped to 10 years. The timeline had previously been set at 20 or 25 years if the loan taken out was less than $12,000.
804,000 borrowers are expected to qualify for forgiveness on some level. Around 614,000 loan holders are expected to have 100 percent of their student loan debt expunged.
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