The parties are the same! Student loan relief edition (Update: White House Fact Sheet & the 5% DI cut off)

Biden is scheduled to speak at 2:15, but here are a few details:

President Joe Biden said Wednesday he will grant student loan forgiveness of $10,000 for millions of borrowers who qualify.

In a tweet spelling out his plans, Biden also said he would forgive up to $20,000 in debt for Americans who borrowed money under the Pell Grant program for low-income students.

Biden is expected to provide more details at 2:15 p.m. EDT.

The long-anticipated move is expected to be accompanied by an extension until January of the federal student loan payment pause, which has been in place since March 2020 and was set to expire Aug. 31. 

Expect lots of tantrums from people who would never vote for a Democrat. Get a big mug so you can savor their tears.

Update: More student loan data can be found in this report.

The White House fact sheet is here so everyone can see the extent of the problem Biden is addressing and understand what the GOP is claiming is perfectly good and normal. Several people have mentioned this piece (I think the second bullet is a BFD too):

For undergraduate loans, cut in half the amount that borrowers have to pay each month from 10% to 5% of discretionary income.
Raise the amount of income that is considered non-discretionary income and therefore is protected from repayment, guaranteeing that no borrower earning under 225% of the federal poverty level—about the annual equivalent of a $15 minimum wage for a single borrower—will have to make a monthly payment.

All of the shrieking about this being unfair to people who can’t benefit from it makes me think of something I experienced when I was much younger. For whatever reason the school I intended always made improvements the year after I left. The year after I left middle school they remodeled the middle and lower school building. The year after high school the high school moved to a brand new building that had been built to be a school rather than a couple of office buildings cobbled together. Each time it happened I thought “Aw man, those lucky kids.” I did not ever think “WAAAH UNFAIR SLAP IN THE FACE IF I DIDN’T GET TO GO TO SCHOOL IN A NICE BUILDING NO ONE CAN.” Because I may be silly, but I’m not a fucking ridiculous dickhead.

Watch Republicans and their enablers ignore fact that this will help people who went to technical colleges and pretend this is a handout to the relatively small number of people who attend upper tier schools. Partially because in their tiny brains the skills needed to repair one of these beasts are passed from father to son, but mostly because they could give a shit about anyone whose parents can’t gift them into an elite school.