Appeals Court Pauses Biden’s Student Loan Plan

(UnitedVoice.com) – As part of his campaign, President Joe Biden promised Americans that he would eliminate student loan debt. That has not worked out for him, despite many attempts to do so. He suffered another setback in the courts recently.

On July 18, the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals issued an administrative stay for the rest of President Joe Biden’s Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) Plan. The program reduced the monthly income-based repayment from 10% to 5% of a person’s discretionary income. The program also fixed problems with the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program, which provides public servants, like nurses and firefighters, with loan forgiveness after they’ve made qualifying monthly payments for 10 years.

The decision by the 8th Circuit came just weeks after the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals allowed the Department of Education to move forward with the plan to lower monthly payments for borrowers. That ruling allowed decisions by federal judges in Missouri and Kansas that blocked much of the SAVE Plan.

The Department of Education said it was reviewing the decision by the 8th Circuit. It claimed that it would “continue to aggressively defend the SAVE Plan” and said it wouldn’t “stop fighting against Republican elected officials’ efforts” to raise the repayment amounts for their own constituents.

Education Secretary Miguel Cardona also responded to the ruling. He said it “could have devastating consequences” for borrowers who have been given “unaffordable monthly payments.” He called the lawsuits by Republicans “shameful” and “politically motivated.” He accused them of “standing in the way of lower payments for millions of borrowers.”

Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey celebrated the decision by the appeals court to “BLOCK” the president’s “entire illegal student loan plan.” He said that it would have stuck working-class Americans with the student loan debt of Ivy League graduates. Bailey, who led the Republican states that filed the lawsuit, said the decision was a “HUGE win.”