President Biden announced Friday that his administration is forgiving $5 billion in student debt for another 74,000 borrowers, marking the latest round of debt cancellation since the Supreme Court voided the president’s student loan forgiveness program.

Mr. Biden said that of the borrowers who can receive relief, nearly 44,000 are teachers, nurses, firefighters and others who are eligible for forgiveness after working 10 years of public service. Almost 30,000 of those who will have their debt wiped clean have been repaying their loans for at least 20 years, but did not get the relief they earned through income-based plans, the president said.

With the latest round of student loan forgiveness, more than 3.7 million Americans have had their debt erased under the Biden administration, Mr. Biden said.

  • Wermhatswormhat@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    I’m not sure why this comment is so controversial. It’s exactly what’s happening. We’ve been talking about this now for forever and almost nothing is happening. It’s wonderful that 74,000 people get some relief but that’s a drop in the ocean. I want it badly but I’ve almost accepted the fact that it’s probably not going to happen.

      • azimir@lemmy.ml
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        10 months ago

        Including me under the TEPSLF. I was on track to hopefully finish paying off my loans at age 63, but with the TEPSLF it counted the ten years I had already done so they were forgiven after the ten years of public service work I did.

        Thank you House/Senate Dems and president Biden!

      • Wermhatswormhat@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        Sure, I agree the extra 3.4 million people have gotten relief or forgiveness is not nothing, but out of the 45.3 million people (quick Google search) with student loan debt that’s only 13%. It’s great, we’re on the path, but 87% of people still haven’t seen any kind of help, and were drug along being promised help for the last 3 years.

        • DesertCreosote@lemm.ee
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          10 months ago

          “It’s only 13% and not 100%, so it doesn’t count!”

          The Supreme Court blocked his attempt last year to forgive debt for another 43 million people, which was set to take effect before repayments started back up. He’s trying to help but is being blocked by conservatives who want him to fail so Trump can be reelected.

    • mosiacmango@lemm.ee
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      10 months ago

      The supreme court stopped them forgiving 460 billion a wide acope. Instead, his admin has forgiven 141 billion in a narrower, but still huge, scope. Its far, far more than any other admin has ever forgiven, and still going.

      If 30% of “an ocean” is just “a drop,” thats one hell of a drop.

      Hell, if he had just promised to forgive the equivalent of 10k like he intended on the campaign trail, his admin would be more than half way there, and climbing.

    • Instigate@aussie.zone
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      10 months ago

      3.4 million people total have had their debts forgiven (so far) out of a potential 45.3 million. That’s around 7.5% of all people who held student loans.

      NOAA estimates that the oceans hold around 1.335 billion cubic kilometres of water, which is around 1.335 sextillion litres (1.335e18 litres) or 353 quintillion gallons (3.53e17 gallons). Estimates put annual human water usage at around 4 trillion m^2 per year (4 quadrillion litres or 1.057 quadrillion gallons).

      If the student loans forgiven were merely ‘a drop in the ocean’, that ‘drop’ would contain 100 quintillion litres or 26.4 quintillion gallons. That ‘drop’ would weigh 100 quadrillion tonnes and would be twenty-five times the amount of water all human being use globally every year. Dumped over the contiguous United States, that would form a layer of water 12.5km (7.8miles) deep.

      That’s a hell of a drop.

      Sources:

    • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      Lots of moderates want to keep copying the Republican party, even the part where no one is allowed to question any politician who has the right letter next to their name.

      They think it’s better to live with the problems and not talk about them let alone solve them.

      Which is pretty much the whole problem.

      • FlowVoid@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        You’re allowed to ask questions. You just don’t like the answers.

        In this case, the answer is that debt forgiveness is happening, but you weren’t paying attention.

          • notabot@lemm.ee
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            10 months ago

            I couldn’t find a source for how much total Biden has forgiven, but I’d be shocked if the percentage doesn’t start with a decimal point.

            It’s north of $136B in total. If you couldn’t find that, you may not have looked today, as it’s definitely been reported. I’ll let you work out the percentage, but it certainly doesn’t begin with a decimal point.

            • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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              10 months ago

              80 years ago moderates said before we could all have universal healthcare, we should settle for orphans, widows, and those with disabilities.

              And that in a few years we might get it for everyone else after they looked into it.

              Couple generations later and moderates are still saying they’re looking into it…

              Why do you think Student Loan debt will be different?

              • FlowVoid@lemmy.world
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                10 months ago

                Medicare covers everyone over 65, not just orphans, widows, and people with disabilities.

                The reason we didn’t have universal health care 80 years ago is that it wasn’t popular 80 years ago. Even today, support for single payer is shaky, depending on the details.

                • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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                  10 months ago

                  Yeah, ok…

                  People kept voting FDR into office so often we had to put a limit on how many times a person could be president because his main campaign issue was unpopular…

                  • FlowVoid@lemmy.world
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                    10 months ago

                    Medicare was popular because it was specifically aimed at retired people.

                    It also did not pass under FDR. In fact, FDR thought health care was too controversial to include in his Social Security proposal.

                    Medicare had to wait until 1965, when it was signed by Lyndon Johnson.

          • dogslayeggs@lemmy.world
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            10 months ago

            I couldn’t find a source for how much total Biden has forgiven, but I’d be shocked if the percentage doesn’t start with a decimal point.

            Prepare to be shocked. It’s close to 8%.

            https://www.cnbc.com/2024/01/19/biden-to-forgive-4point9-billion-in-student-debt-for-73600-borrowers.html

            Also, if you couldn’t find a source then you either didn’t actually try to find a source, or you aren’t smart enough to google “how much student loan debt Biden has forgiven.” The answer was in the first result.