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Remarks by President Biden Announcing Student Loan Debt Relief Plan
And the Inflation Reduction Act is going to cut it by another $300 billion over the next decade because Medicare will be paying less for prescription drugs, and over a trillion dollars if you add it out for the next two decades.
The point is this: There is plenty of deficit reduction to pay for the programs - cumulative deficit reduction - to pay for the programs many times over.
I will never apologize for helping Americans working - working Americans and middle class, especially not to the same folks who voted for a $2 trillion tax cut that mainly benefitted the wealthiest Americans and the biggest corporations, that slowed the economy, didn't do a hell of a lot for economic growth, and wasn't paid for and racked up this enormous deficit.
Just as we've never apologized when the federal government forgave almost every single cent of over $700 billion in loans to hundreds of thousands of small businesses across the - across America during the pandemic.
No one complained that those loans caused inflation. A lot of these folks and small businesses are working and middle-class families. They needed help. It was the right thing to do.
So, the outrage over helping working people with student - with student loans, I think, is just - simply wrong. Dead wrong.
Third thing: We're fixing the student loan program system itself. We've talked about this at length. This is really important.
We're proposing to make what's called an income-driven repayment plan - simple and fair. And here's how: No one with an undergraduate loan today or in the future, whether for community college or a four-year college, will have to pay more than 5 percent of their discretionary income to repay their loan. That's income after you pay the necessities like housing, food, and the like.
You currently pay 10 percent. We're cutting in that in half to 5 percent.
And after you pay your loan for 20 years, your obligation will be fulfilled if it hadn't already been fulfilled, meaning you won't have to pay any more - period.
And borrowers whose original balance was less than $12,000, many of whom are community college students, will be done paying just after 10 years.
These changes will save more than $1,000 a year on average for the borrower. It's a gamechanger.
We're also fixing what's called - and this has been the bane of - driving me crazy when I was out of office - the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program. Now, this program forgives student loans to encourage those students who have those loans if they go into public service.
Think of the millions who are public school teachers, local police officers, workers at local charities, members of the military and the National Guard, and so many more.
Think of the folks who work for federal, state, local, Tribal governments, keeping essential services going and responding to natural disasters - all those firefighters and cops.
The program is designed so that if you serve in one of these jobs - and we'll be able to list those in - you'll be able to accurately assess whether you do - and make your loan payments for 10 years, even if it's not consecutive years, your remaining balance will be completely forgiven.
It's a great idea, but the program is a mess. It's so inefficient and complicated, too many people just give up.
Think of a service member who defers their student loan payment while they're deployed. The system is so restrictive that their active-duty service didn't count as "public service" and their loan isn't forgiven as promised. It's outrageous.
Well, the man to my left is going to fix it.
The Department of Education has recently proposed changes that will make this program work better and, over the long term, much better.
And now, the department issues emergency temporary changes to retroactively credit public service so it counts and loans are forgiven.
Since I've been in office, more than 175,000 teachers, nurses, police officers have been able to get over $10 billion in loan forgiveness so far through this program. But this opportunity expires on October 31st, 2022.
So, my message to all servants - all public servants, all those who are the ones that are volunteering [working] is out - with student debt to go - here's what you want to - if you - if you're worried about how to do it, go to PSLF.gov before October 31st to see if you qualify for public service student - student loan forgiveness.
This is another gamechanger.
And we're going to have people who are there to help get you - help direct you and work you - work your way through the process.
And one more big change we're making to the system is: We're holding colleges accountable for jacking up costs without delivering value to students.
We've all heard of those schools luring students with a promise of big paychecks when they graduate only to watch these students be ripped off and left with mountains of debt.
And my predecessors looked the other way for some reason reason - with good reason - to do some - anything about this fraud. My administration is taking it on.
For example, the Department of Education works with private education associations to accredited college - to accredited colleges and universities so they can receive federal aid. Well, last week, the Department of Education fired a college accreditor that allowed colleges like ITT and Corinthian to defraud borrowers.
And combined with our emergency actions, the Public Service Forgiveness program, and other actions we've taken, we've been able to cancel more than $32 billion in student debt for 1.6 million borrowers, including those defrauded by these bad-acting schools.
Our goal is to shine a light on the worst actors so students can avoid these debt traps.
Now, I understand not everyone - not everything I'm announcing today is going to make everybody happy.
Some think it's too much. I find it interesting how some of my Republican friends who voted for those tax cuts and others think that we shouldn't be helping these folks. Some think it's too little. But I believe my plan is responsible and fair. It focuses the benefit on middle-class and working families, it helps both current and future borrowers, and it will fix a badly broken system.
And these actions build on my administration's effort to make college more affordable in the first place. It includes unprecedented investments - nearly $6 billion in Historic Black Colleges and Universities, much of which is focused on pandemic relief to help students cover tuition and other costs so they could stay in school.
And I must be honest with you: I'm going to continue to fight for doubling the Pell Grants. I didn't get that done this time.
Let me say it again: 12 years of universal education is not enough. I'm going to continue to work for universal pre-K for every three- and four-year-old, and universal community college for education beyond high school.
Let me close with this: I ran for office to grow the economy from the bottom up and the middle out because when we do that, everyone does better, everybody does well. The wealthy do very well, the poor have a way up, and the middle class can have breathing room. And that's going to help America win the economic competition of the 21st century, because much of my time is spent: "How do we remain the most competitive nation in the world with the strongest economy in the world with the greatest opportunities in the world?"
That's what today's announcement is about. It's about opportunity. It's about giving people a fair shot. It's about the one word America can be defined by: possibilities. It's all about providing possibilities.
We're going to have a lot more to say about this. There's a lot of material that's going to be put out as to how this is being implemented.
And I want to thank you all. And God bless you all. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Q Mr. President, how much advance notice did you have of the FBI's plan to search Mar-a-Lago?
THE PRESIDENT: I didn't have any advance notice. None. Zero. Not one single bit.
Thank you.
Q Mr. President, is this unfair to people who paid their student loans or chose not to take out loans?
THE PRESIDENT: Is it fair to people who in fact do not own a multi-billion-dollar business if they see one of these guys give them all a tax break? Is that fair? What do you think?
END • 3:07 P.M. EDT
JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR.
You can visit a collection of all Biden White House posts by clicking here.
Go Back
The point is this: There is plenty of deficit reduction to pay for the programs - cumulative deficit reduction - to pay for the programs many times over.
I will never apologize for helping Americans working - working Americans and middle class, especially not to the same folks who voted for a $2 trillion tax cut that mainly benefitted the wealthiest Americans and the biggest corporations, that slowed the economy, didn't do a hell of a lot for economic growth, and wasn't paid for and racked up this enormous deficit.
Just as we've never apologized when the federal government forgave almost every single cent of over $700 billion in loans to hundreds of thousands of small businesses across the - across America during the pandemic.
No one complained that those loans caused inflation. A lot of these folks and small businesses are working and middle-class families. They needed help. It was the right thing to do.
So, the outrage over helping working people with student - with student loans, I think, is just - simply wrong. Dead wrong.
Third thing: We're fixing the student loan program system itself. We've talked about this at length. This is really important.
We're proposing to make what's called an income-driven repayment plan - simple and fair. And here's how: No one with an undergraduate loan today or in the future, whether for community college or a four-year college, will have to pay more than 5 percent of their discretionary income to repay their loan. That's income after you pay the necessities like housing, food, and the like.
You currently pay 10 percent. We're cutting in that in half to 5 percent.
And after you pay your loan for 20 years, your obligation will be fulfilled if it hadn't already been fulfilled, meaning you won't have to pay any more - period.
And borrowers whose original balance was less than $12,000, many of whom are community college students, will be done paying just after 10 years.
These changes will save more than $1,000 a year on average for the borrower. It's a gamechanger.
We're also fixing what's called - and this has been the bane of - driving me crazy when I was out of office - the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program. Now, this program forgives student loans to encourage those students who have those loans if they go into public service.
Think of the millions who are public school teachers, local police officers, workers at local charities, members of the military and the National Guard, and so many more.
Think of the folks who work for federal, state, local, Tribal governments, keeping essential services going and responding to natural disasters - all those firefighters and cops.
The program is designed so that if you serve in one of these jobs - and we'll be able to list those in - you'll be able to accurately assess whether you do - and make your loan payments for 10 years, even if it's not consecutive years, your remaining balance will be completely forgiven.
It's a great idea, but the program is a mess. It's so inefficient and complicated, too many people just give up.
Think of a service member who defers their student loan payment while they're deployed. The system is so restrictive that their active-duty service didn't count as "public service" and their loan isn't forgiven as promised. It's outrageous.
Well, the man to my left is going to fix it.
The Department of Education has recently proposed changes that will make this program work better and, over the long term, much better.
And now, the department issues emergency temporary changes to retroactively credit public service so it counts and loans are forgiven.
Since I've been in office, more than 175,000 teachers, nurses, police officers have been able to get over $10 billion in loan forgiveness so far through this program. But this opportunity expires on October 31st, 2022.
So, my message to all servants - all public servants, all those who are the ones that are volunteering [working] is out - with student debt to go - here's what you want to - if you - if you're worried about how to do it, go to PSLF.gov before October 31st to see if you qualify for public service student - student loan forgiveness.
This is another gamechanger.
And we're going to have people who are there to help get you - help direct you and work you - work your way through the process.
And one more big change we're making to the system is: We're holding colleges accountable for jacking up costs without delivering value to students.
We've all heard of those schools luring students with a promise of big paychecks when they graduate only to watch these students be ripped off and left with mountains of debt.
And my predecessors looked the other way for some reason reason - with good reason - to do some - anything about this fraud. My administration is taking it on.
For example, the Department of Education works with private education associations to accredited college - to accredited colleges and universities so they can receive federal aid. Well, last week, the Department of Education fired a college accreditor that allowed colleges like ITT and Corinthian to defraud borrowers.
And combined with our emergency actions, the Public Service Forgiveness program, and other actions we've taken, we've been able to cancel more than $32 billion in student debt for 1.6 million borrowers, including those defrauded by these bad-acting schools.
Our goal is to shine a light on the worst actors so students can avoid these debt traps.
Now, I understand not everyone - not everything I'm announcing today is going to make everybody happy.
Some think it's too much. I find it interesting how some of my Republican friends who voted for those tax cuts and others think that we shouldn't be helping these folks. Some think it's too little. But I believe my plan is responsible and fair. It focuses the benefit on middle-class and working families, it helps both current and future borrowers, and it will fix a badly broken system.
And these actions build on my administration's effort to make college more affordable in the first place. It includes unprecedented investments - nearly $6 billion in Historic Black Colleges and Universities, much of which is focused on pandemic relief to help students cover tuition and other costs so they could stay in school.
And I must be honest with you: I'm going to continue to fight for doubling the Pell Grants. I didn't get that done this time.
Let me say it again: 12 years of universal education is not enough. I'm going to continue to work for universal pre-K for every three- and four-year-old, and universal community college for education beyond high school.
Let me close with this: I ran for office to grow the economy from the bottom up and the middle out because when we do that, everyone does better, everybody does well. The wealthy do very well, the poor have a way up, and the middle class can have breathing room. And that's going to help America win the economic competition of the 21st century, because much of my time is spent: "How do we remain the most competitive nation in the world with the strongest economy in the world with the greatest opportunities in the world?"
That's what today's announcement is about. It's about opportunity. It's about giving people a fair shot. It's about the one word America can be defined by: possibilities. It's all about providing possibilities.
We're going to have a lot more to say about this. There's a lot of material that's going to be put out as to how this is being implemented.
And I want to thank you all. And God bless you all. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Q Mr. President, how much advance notice did you have of the FBI's plan to search Mar-a-Lago?
THE PRESIDENT: I didn't have any advance notice. None. Zero. Not one single bit.
Thank you.
Q Mr. President, is this unfair to people who paid their student loans or chose not to take out loans?
THE PRESIDENT: Is it fair to people who in fact do not own a multi-billion-dollar business if they see one of these guys give them all a tax break? Is that fair? What do you think?
JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR.
- Contact: White House
- Press Office
| Background Press Call by Senior Administration Officials on Student Loan Relief | News Services, Government, State and Federal | Executive Order on the Implementation of the CHIPS Act of 2022 |
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