Columbus residents react to SCOTUS blocking Student Loan Forgiveness Plan
Friday - the supreme court blocked the administration’s efforts to deliver up to 20-thousand dollars in loan relief to millions of borrowers struggling with debt.
COLUMBUS, Ga. (WTVM) - A recent supreme court ruling has people around the Valley talking. The decision will likely impact millions of Americans, including you at home. Some people praise the supreme court, while others are not happy at all about having to pay back their student loans. One expert breaks down what comes next as student loan payments pick back up later this year.
It’s back to the drawing board for the Biden administration. Friday - the supreme court blocked the administration’s efforts to deliver up to 20-thousand dollars in loan relief to millions of borrowers struggling with debt. The decision was 6 to 3.
Biden promises more help is on the way but student loan expert with Lending Tree, Jacob Channel, says it won’t be easy.
“The supreme court is clearly not a fan of the president unilaterally being able to forgive student loan debt.”, said Channel. “It’s definitely going to be an uphill battle to actually implement it without specific congressional authority. I.e. Congress getting together and passing a specific bill towards student loans which also seems unlikely given the current make up of congress.”
For Debbie Miller, she feels like the country is more than capable of providing relief for student loan borrowers struggling with debt. On the other hand, Bruce Robinson says he doesn’t want to foot the bill for other people’s loans through his taxes.
“I cannot understand why this country that has so much money and could help out the whole world but they can’t help out thier own citizens to have a better life.”, said Miller.
”I don’t think it should be a burden on people that don’t make their loans but I think that doctors and lawyers and whoever graduates from college needs to pay their debt.”, said Robinson.
So far the White House announced two steps aimed at providing debt relief for borrowers. Those include the secretary of education initiating a rule-making process for a new repayment plan relying on different laws. The department of education is also starting a new repayment schedule that would start in October... Which would protect certain borrowers who have missed payments.
For Bruce Robinson.... He’s concerned these new alternatives could end up coming out of his pocket in taxes.
”I don’t think it should be a burden on people that don’t make their loans but I think that doctors and lawyers and whoever graduates from college needs to pay their debt.”, said Robinson.
Channel adds most people will likely not see an increase in taxes.
“At the end of the day, this will have to be paid for and the way the government raises money is through either borrowing it or through taxes.”, said Channel. ”There’s very unlikely to be an outright tax increase to pay for this at least on the vast majority of Americans. Clearly the Biden administration is in favor of raising taxes on the highest of high earners but that’s not 95% of the population.”
Political science professor from the university of Georgia... Charles bullock... Says that help could take awhile to get here. According to him, the Supreme Court states the President does not have the power to cancel student loan debt, that’s something that has to go through congress. And congress does not have the numbers willing to do that. Bullock breaks down other possibilities moving forward.
”What the white house is talking about doing is perhaps changing the pattern or some of the conditions for payment. Perhaps lowering the amount that a student would have to pay on a monthly basis, from say 10% down to 5%.”, said Bullock. “Their also talking about setting it up so that if you miss a payment, you’re not going to be immediately turned over to a credit agency or a debt collector.”
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