The White House is attacking Republicans over student loans as the issue remains unresolved ahead of the midterms.
President Joe Biden announced a $500 billion student debt transfer on Aug. 24, but the program has since gotten bogged down in courts with more than a half-dozen lawsuits filed trying to stop it from going through. The White House released a “by the numbers” sheet Thursday lashing out at the GOP over the issue.
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“The Biden administration’s student debt relief plan will benefit working and middle-class families the most,” it reads in part. “Republican officials across the country, however, have a different plan. Rather than easing the burden of loan debt for tens of millions of Americans, Republican officials have sued to prevent those hardest hit from the pandemic from getting relief.”
A coalition of six GOP-led states have sued over the issue and a judge has temporarily halted the program pending further review. The Biden administration countered by making a preliminary application for “relief” available, which it says close to 26 million borrowers have filled out. Roughly 40 million Americans hold a collective $1.7 trillion in student loan debt.
“If Republican officials get their way, tens of millions of Americans’ monthly costs will rise dramatically when student loan payments resume next year,” reads the White House release. “Working and middle-class Americans who could have up to $10,000 or $20,000 of their student debt relieved under the Biden Administration’s plan will remain under the burden of loan debt.”
The release further breaks down who will get debt relief if the plan goes through, saying 20 million borrowers would have their remaining debt eliminated, and that 40% of the money owed is from people who earned a certificate rather than a degree.
Republicans point to the 87% of the population that does not have student debt, predicting a “blue-collar backlash” among people who either didn’t attend college, attended without taking loans, or paid off their loans.
They also hold that the program is clearly against the law because only Congress has the power of the purse under the Constitution.
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“At no point has the government made a plausible argument that the underlying policy is legal,” Pacific Legal Foundation attorney Michael Poon told the Washington Examiner. “The administration’s ‘lawmaking by press release’ is clearly unconstitutional.”
In a statement to the Washington Examiner, Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC), the ranking member of the House Committee on Education and Labor, blasted her Democratic colleagues as “shameless” for promoting the program, and said, “Instead of pushing this kind of policy,” they “should join Republicans back at the drawing board so we can work together on a sensible, bipartisan policy.”
