US Supreme Court Stops Biden’s Student Loan Debt Forgiveness Program
The US Supreme court, in a significant ruling on Friday, declared that the Biden administration cannot proceed with its proposed student loan debt forgiveness program. This initiative, which had faced legal challenges, aimed to alleviate the burden of student loans by offering federal relief of up to $10,000, and up to $20,000 for Pell Grant recipients, to individuals earning less than $125,000 annually. The projected cost of the program exceeded $400,000.
President Biden had introduced this unprecedented debt cancellation effort in August 2022, resulting in approximately 16 million applications being submitted to his administration. However, Republicans raised objections, leading to the suspension of the program pending litigation.
The crux of the Republican argument centered around the assertion that President Biden lacked the unilateral authority to forgive student loans. According to estimates by the Congressional Budget Office, the implementation of Biden’s plan would have imposed a financial burden of approximately $400 billion on taxpayers.
Republicans expressed their outrage at the substantial cost, contending that such forgiveness would be unfair to individuals who had either self-funded their college education, repaid their loans in full, or never attended college at all.
