Courts block Biden from canceling any more student loan debt
President Biden’s latest student loan bailout was blocked Monday by federal judges in Kansas a🔴nd Missouri following a lawsuit from seveℱral Republican-led states.
The nationwide preliminary injunctions issued by US District Judges Daniel Crabtree in Kansas and John Ross in Missouri – both appointees of former President Barack O♑bama – prevent the Biden administration from canceling any more federal student debt for borrower🌸s enrolled in the Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) plan.
The 81-year-old president’s Education Department will also be barred f💟rom implementing new SAVE plan prꦕovisions while the litigation plays out.
The judges did not call for d🃏ebt🍨 relief already handed out to be clawed back.
Biden’s SAVE plan, which is expected to cost US taxpayers $475 billion over the next 10 years, aims to cut monthly inc🌌ome-based student loan payments in half and eliminate monthly payments for minimum-wage earners. For student borrowers who owe $12,000 or less, all 𒆙outstanding debt would be forgiven after 10 years.
The University of Pennsylvania’s Penn Wharton Budget Model estimated ༺that about 750,000 households making over $312,000 in average household income would benefit as well, seeing an average of $25,541.39 in debt relief under the SAVE plan, far above the $4,899.26 average.
Some $5.5 billion in student loan debt has already been forgiven under the plan,🃏 which was🐻 slated to fully take effect on July 1.
Both judges found that lawsuits led by ♛Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey and Kansas Att🎐orney General Kris Kobach were likely to succeed in arguing that Biden overstepped his authority when he bypassed Congress to implement the SAVE plan.
“Kansas’s victory today is a victory for the entire country,” Kobach, a Republican, said in a statement. “As the court correctly held, whᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚether to forgive billions of dollars of student debt is a major question that only Congress can answer. Biden’s administration is attempting to usurp Congres🌌s’s authority.”
“This is not only unconstitutional, it’s unfair,” he added. “Blue collar Kansas workers who didn’t go to college shouldn’t have to pay off the student l🃏oans of New Yorkersꦇ with gender studies degrees.”
Bailey, also a Republican, similarly argued that “Congress never gave Biden the authority to saddle working Americans with half-a-trillion dollars in other people’s debt.”
“A huge win for the Constitution,” the Missouri AꦚG wrote on X.
The Supreme Court struck down a prior attempt by Biden to foไrgive $400 billion in federal student loan debt last summer.
Kobach’s complaint argued that the SAVE plan is “every bit as improper as🐟 [Biden’s] first unlawful attempt at debt forgiveness,” in which the president sought to forgive between $10,000 and $20,000 in federal student loans for about 40 million people.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement that the Biden administration plans to continue enrolling individual❀s in the SAVE plan despite the injunc♍tion.
“We strongly disagree with today’s rulings on our SAVE Plan and the Department🐷 of Justice will continue to vigorously defend the SAVE Plan,” she said in a statement.
“It’s unfortunate that Republican elected officials and their allies have fought tooth and nail to prevent their constituents from accessing lower payments and a faster path to debt forgiveness — and that courts are now rejecting authority that the Department h🔯as applied repeatedly for decades to improve income-driven repayment plans.
“Today’s rulings won’t stop our Administration from using every tool available to give students and borrowers the relief they need,” Jean-Pierre added. “That’s why the Department of Education will continue to enroll more Americans in SAVE and help more students and borrowers access the benefits of the plan that remain available, including $0 payments for anyone making $16 an hour or less, lower monthly payments for millions more borrowers, and protecting borrowers from runaway interest if they are making their monthly payments.”
The Department of Education did not respond to The Post’s req🎀uests for comment.
