Exclusive: Biden shares how his new student loan forgiveness plan will build on debt relief for millions of Americans.
President Joe Biden spoke exclusively with The Recount ahead of his major student debt forgiveness announcement Monday in Madison, Wisconsin — setting the record straight on his first relief plan and identifying how is latest proposal will continue to build on debt relief for millions of Americans.
“The first swing you took at student debt forgiveness was struck down by the Supreme Court in June of last year. You’re rolling out ‘Plan B’ today,” The Recount’s Grace Weinstein, host of “WTF America” on YouTube and Snapchat, said. “We expect that there might be some legal challenges down the road. What makes you more confident about this plan? And how can you assuage people’s fears who are afraid of being let down again like they were last time?”
“Well, we never completely let them down. The Supreme Court said no, and my Republican colleagues sued to say no, but there were two existing programs that weren't being run very well, and the last guy didn’t pay attention to them at all,” the president replied.
“One of them was the loan forgiveness for people who do public service,” Biden continued. If you’re a school teacher, firefighter, et cetera, and you’ve worked for 10 years, you’ve been paying your loan. At the end of 10 years, it’s forgiven. It’s still going on. It’s a major, major program. The second one is a program that said that if you owe money, you only have to pay back 10 percent of your disposable income. That’s after all your bills are paid.”
“In addition, I’ve also set up what I'm announcing today in a moment, a number of programs,” he explained. “For example, if you make less than $30,000 a year, you don’t have to pay any interest while you’re only making that much money, and you can move toward debt forgiveness.”
“We’re going to forgive a lot more because it’s economically smart as well,” Biden added.
