Ruling against student debt forgiveness: McCarthy celebrates while Biden calls the decision "unthinkable"

The speaker applauds the Supreme Court's decision while the president is outraged to be presented with this serious obstacle in one of his great electoral promises.

El presidente, Joe Biden, y el presidente de la Cámara de Representantes, Kevin McCarthy, alcanzan un acuerdo sobre el techo de deuda. — (cORDON pRESS)

Published by

Alejandro Baños

30 de junio, 2023

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U.S. President Joe Biden angrily criticized the Supreme Court's ruling against the student debt forgiveness plan, one of the major promises he made during the 2020 presidential election campaign. However, he claims that he will keep fighting to reverse the decision and move forward with his proposal:

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy celebrated the ruling in a post on his Twitter account:

President Biden’s student loan giveaway is ruled UNLAWFUL. The 87% of Americans without student loans are no longer forced to pay for the 13% who do. This builds on the Fiscal Responsibility Act’s end to the payment pause. The President must follow the law. The Court called out Pelosi in its decision: 'People think that the President of the United States has the power for debt forgiveness. He does not. He can postpone. He can delay. But he does not have that power. That has to be an act of Congress.' I agree with her for once!

Several candidates for the upcoming presidential elections also expressed their opinions on the Supreme Court's decision. Former Vice President Mike Pence said it was a "bailout" that "subsidizes the education of the elite at the expense of hardworking Americans." Nikki Haley called Biden's plan an "abuse of power" and Tim Scott called the ruling "a victory for common sense." On the Democratic side, candidate Robert F. Kennedy called it a "failure" that the president could not bring Congress together on debt forgiveness.

This Friday, the Supreme Court ruled against Joe Biden's student debt forgiveness plan with six votes against and three in favor. It would have cost at least $230 billion, according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB). The Penn Wharton-University of Pennsylvania Budget Model estimated the final cost to be around $980 billion. In other words, the cost per taxpayer would be no less than $2,100.