Biden attempts to appeal to young voters by speeding up student loan forgiveness
Borrowers who took out less than $12,000 in federal student loans and have been in repayment for at least 10 years will be forgiven.
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Borrowers who took out less than $12,000 in federal student loans and have been in repayment for at least 10 years will be forgiven.
The Biden administration announced on Friday a new approach to forgiving the student loan debt of thousands of borrowers, coming as the incumbent president has slumped in polling among younger voters.
The move will forgive the remaining student loan debt of borrowers who took out less than $12,000 in federal student loans and have been in repayment for at least 10 years, according to a White House press release. The action, which will begin in February, will also require borrowers to be enrolled in Biden’s Saving on Valuable Education (SAVE) plan to get loan forgiveness. The provision, Biden wrote, comes six months ahead of schedule.
"This action will particularly help community college borrowers, low-income borrowers, and those struggling to repay their loans. And, it’s part of our ongoing efforts to act as quickly as possible to give more borrowers breathing room so they can get out from under the burden of student loan debt, move on with their lives and pursue their dreams," Biden wrote.
Biden later added that his administration is "continuing to pursue an alternative path to deliver student debt relief to as many borrowers as possible as quickly as possible" in the wake of last year’s Supreme Court ruling blocking the widespread student loan forgiveness plan that was proposed, forgiving up to $20,000 in student loan debt for many Americans.
The announcement comes as Biden’s favor has slipped among younger voters.
In a December New York Times/Sienna College poll, Biden was trailing 2024 GOP frontrunner Donald Trump by 2 points, at 44 to 46 percent, respectively.
A poll from NBC News in November found that Trump led Biden by four points among voters ages 18 to 34, 46 to 42 percent, respectively.
"President Biden is downright desperate to buy votes before the election – so much so that he greenlights the Department of Education to dump even more kerosene on an already raging student debt fire," said the Republican chair of the House Education Committee, Virginia Foxx of North Carolina, according to NPR.
"It would surprise no one if the Department relied on infants playing with abacuses to balance its books – it is a complete and utter disaster."
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