Following pressure from progressives and
likely a reflection of his terrible approval ratings.
President Joe Biden decided to extend the payments for federal student loans.
They were supposed to go into effect on February 1, but there was a lot of
backlash as a result of that because we're still experiencing a global pandemic and
of course there's a new variant that is rapidly spreading across the country.
So president Joe Biden has reversed course and he has announced that
he is extending this freeze on federal student loan payments.
He writes on twitter today,
my administration is extending the pause on federal student loan repayment for
an additional 90 days through May 1 of 2022 as we manage
the ongoing pandemic and further strengthen our economic recovery.
And he also explained more about his reasoning in a video he released,
let's take a quick look at that.
>> Folks our economic recovery is the strongest in the world, but
I know that because of the pandemic, many borrowers need more time to resume
payments, for that reason my administration is extending the pause on
student loans repayments for 90 more days through May 1 2022.
In the meantime, folks should take advantage of the Department of Education's
option to make payments easier like income based repayments or
public service student loan forgiveness program.
Look at them both.
>> Now, there are some who are giving Joe Biden a little bit of credit for
being willing to extend this freeze on federal student loan repayments.
But I don't know, maybe I'm being unfair.
Maybe my standards are too high because as I look at this story,
I don't really feel like applauding Joe Biden for what he's doing.
In fact, I don't think that he deserves any praise at all.
He doesn't deserve any cookies, no cookies for you, Joe Biden,
[MUSIC]
No cookies for you, I'm sorry.
Cancel student loan debt, just cancel it.
He can unilaterally cancel student loan debt,
kicking the can down the road for another 90 days does not solve a problem.
It kicks the can down the road and every time you hear the Biden administration
argue that, we don't know if we can do that unilaterally.
We don't know if we can do that through executive action.
We need to do this through a congressional legislation.
No, they're lying to you.
In fact,
the Biden administration has canceled some the federal student loan debt.
They have the ability to do it.
The problem is they're not willing to do it in a large scale.
They're not willing to do it in a way that actually has a significant
impact on this economy.
And also, more importantly, on people's lives,
we're talking about federal student loans.
These are student loans that were given out to students by the federal government.
If Biden wanted to, if the Education Secretary wanted to, if they genuinely
cared about improving people's lives, they would cancel student loan debt.
Federal student loan debt, which of course they have the jurisdiction over.
But they're unwilling to do it.
More than 40 million Americans have had nearly two years without required
payments or interest on their collective $1.7 trillion in students loans.
And the Education Department said in a statement that the pause is expected
to save 41 million borrowers, about $5 billion dollars a month.
Great, that's awesome.
So what happens when this freeze is lifted?
What happens then?
They're not saving money anymore, right?
In fact, not only are they forced to repay their student loans every month,
there's interest involved and that's what I really wanna get to here because it is
important to kind of understand why it is that the federal government refuses to
cancel student loan debt, even when the executive branch could do it
unilaterally without congressional approval.
Why is it, could it be that there's actual money coming in for
the federal government not in the form of millionaires and
billionaires paying their fair share of taxes?
I mean, we can't have that.
Let's shelter them from having to pay their fair share could it be because
they're bringing in quite a bit of money every year from the interest
associated with those federal student loans?
I don't know, maybe I'm being a little unfair.
Now remember, Biden campaigned, although it was a week campaign promise
he campaigned on canceling some student loan debt,
Biden had campaigned on forgiving up to $10,000 in debt per borrower.
But he has since said any such action would have to come from Congress.
And of course he would say that because he knows full well that congress ain't gonna
pass the damn thing.
I mean, we saw what happened with build back better.
We saw what happened with the social spending program,
they're not gonna pass the damn thing.
He knows it, which is why it's easy to just brush it off and be like,
I don't know, little Congress should do something about it.
Very cute.
He thinks we're all stupid and he doesn't,
he thinks we don't know what's going on here.
But federal student loans again do have interest associated to with them and
that interest is paid to the federal government.
And so federal student loans for undergraduates currently have an interest
rate of 3.73 percent while graduate students have interest rates of 5.28% or
6.28% for unsubsidized loans or PLUS loans, respectively.
So just how much money does the federal government typically bring in per year?
Obviously a normal year where the payments are happening a non covid year.
How much money are they bringing in?
Well, that number is $70.3 billion.
Okay, that's how much the government collected on its loan
portfolio in financial year, 2019,
the last full year before payments were paused due to the pandemic.
It covers only payments on loans that are owned and
managed by the government which the current total is $1.4 trillion dollars
according to the Department of Education's latest portfolio summary.
So all of this nonsense about,
we don't know if we could actually do that.
If we wanna do something to really change education in this country,
higher education in this country, if we wanna make it obtainable for people.
So there are more opportunities for
people you would make public universities free like they once were and
maybe we should start from scratch cancel the student loan debt.
Right, allow for all of these tens of millions of Americans struggling
with that debt to finally be free of it, to be able to participate
in our economy without that cloud hanging over them their entire lives.
And as I've said before, I mean Biden of all people has a moral
obligation to cancel student loan debt because he's
the one who championed the bankruptcy bill which made it impossible
to discharge your student loans even if you file for bankruptcy.
So no matter what you do, student loans, follow you around for
the rest of your lives.
Okay, and a lot of people don't have choices.
I mean the way that it's being reported about, talked about, on cable news for
instance, makes it seem like all these irresponsible Americans.
They wanted to get an education and so they took out loans to be able to do that
because wages haven't kept up with inflation since the 1970s.
Nearly half of Americans can't afford a $400 emergency but
they're irresponsible and they had the audacity to want an education
which of course is associated with astronomical prices.
You can't get a free college education in this country.
And so the students are the bad guys, the people who wanted a better life for
themselves and their families they're the bad guys.
The people who were told their entire lives you gotta work hard,
get an education.
They're the bad guys there, the irresponsible ones.
Or could it be a system that allows for the worst speculators who make
the worst investment decisions to easily discharge their loans or
their debt in bankruptcy while also turning around and telling American
students, you're struggling with crippling student loan debt.
Here's the middle finger go f off.
That's what our government tells us.
That's what the bankruptcy bill did.
Biden is so incredibly pathetic.
I'm just keeping it real and
to add to the pathetic nature of the Biden administration, here's Kamala Harris
giving a wishy washy answer on student loans during a recent interview.
>> What I believe we must do is continue to be vigilant and fighting for
folks who have a right to be seen and their circumstances to be heard and
understood because we have the ability to actually alleviate the burdens that people
are carrying, that make it difficult for them to get through the day or the month.
>> But do you think you need to deliver on that promise before 2022?
>> Which promise?
>> On debt forgiveness for student loans?
>> Well, I think that we have to continue to do what we're doing to figure out how
we can creatively relieve the pressure that students are feeling because of
their student loan debt, yes.
>> Yeah, you don't need to get to creative.
It's actually very simple cancel federal student loan debt.
Don't get creative.
Why?
Another week answer, vague answer really?
Yeah, we take it very seriously.
We gotta get creative and figure out what we're gonna do about the federal student
loan debt that the Biden administration can unilaterally cancel.
Sick of the lies, I'm sick of the weakness and more importantly,
I'm sick of all the pathetic people on twitter,
all of the apologists for the Democratic Party crying and
whining about my segments regarding how weak Democratic leadership is.
Stop providing cover for losers, grow up.
They're big boys and girls and they're screwing you, wake up and realize it.