President Biden announced his upcoming plan for student loan forgiveness on Wednesday, August 24, in a 21 minute speech to the American public. This announcement checked off another of the prominent promises from his 2020 campaign.
Republican Representative Jim Jordan of Ohio appeared to be deeply displeased with President Biden's decision to cancel a portion of student loan debt for millions of Americans, and faced fierce backlash following a series of tweets, take a look at the report below:
Jim Jordan is outraged over Biden's plan for student loan forgiveness | RawStory.TVJim Jordan is outraged over Biden's plan for student loan forgiveness | RawStory.TV
According to a recent Forbes Financial article, Federal student loans make up 92% of all outstanding American education debt. The federal student loan portfolio currently totals more than $1.6 trillion, owed by about 43 million borrowers.
It could be assumed Biden’s student loan plan might only provide relief to younger generations, but even retirees feel the pressure from student loans. There are 2.4 million borrowers aged 62 or older that owe $98 billion in student loans.
President Joe Biden’s long-awaited plan to forgive student debt drew immediate pushback from not only ultra conservative Republican Jim Jordan, but also other lawmakers and consumer groups, even as they praised the historic measure.
According to CNBC reporting, “Astra Taylor, co-founder of the Debt Collective, a union for debtors, called Wednesday’s announcement “bittersweet.” She said in a statement, “On the one hand, this is a landmark victory for our movement. Yet, President Biden should have, and could have, done much more than cancel $10,000 or $20,000 — and he could have made the relief automatic, instead of imposing unnecessary hurdles.”’
Payments on federal student loans have been paused since March 2020 with the passage of the CARES Act. The pause was originally set to expire in September 2020, but former President Trump extended it twice, and now Biden has extended it five times during his term.
In addition to the bi-partisan backlash surrounding the newly released student debt relief guidelines, the federal government's student aid website studentaid.gov, crashed on Wednesday after President Biden’s announcement to borrowers. The site has been down due to "high volumes of visitors" off and on since.
The Department of Education also specified that borrowers who recently paid off or made payments to their federal student loans during the repayment pause may also be able to request a refund of loan repayments made since March 13, 2020.
Parents who also took out Parent PLUS Loans or direct loans with the federal government also qualify for loan forgiveness, according to White House officials.
