With help from moderate Democrats, Senate votes to overturn Joe Biden's student debt cancellation

The Senate approved a bill overturning Joe Biden's student debt cancellation. All Republicans and three moderate Democrats joined in setting the final tally: 52 in favor and 46 opposed. The resolution would also repeal the pay freeze in effect since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. The president has already said he will veto the bill, which will reach his desk in the next few days.

Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), Jon Tester (D-Mo.) and Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.) joined all Senate Republicans in overturning the president's executive order cancelling student debt, still pending the Supreme Court's decision. Manchin explained his vote, arguing that Biden's initiative was "reckless" and would simply add more fuel to the public debt fire.

In addition, he said, the bill "forces hard-working taxpayers who already paid off their loans or did not go to college to shoulder the cost."

"The president’s student loan schemes do not ‘forgive’ debt; they just shift the burden from those who chose to take out loans onto those who never went to college or already fulfilled their commitment to pay off their loans," Bill Cassidy (R-La.) said prior to the vote.

"Our bipartisan resolution prevents average Americans, 87% of whom do not currently have student loans, from being forced to foot the bill for these unfair and irresponsible policies," the senator added.

The resolution was approved by the House of Representatives at the end of May. Pushed through the House by Congressman Bob Good (R-Va.), it was made possible by the Congressional Review Act (CRA), which allows Congress to suspend executive orders made by the president.

The cost of Biden's plan to cancel student debt

According to a Penn Wharton (University of Pennsylvania) nonpartisan analysis, "federal student loan debt forgiveness will cost between $300 billion and $980 billion over the 10-year budget period, depending on the details of the program.

In addition, the analysis found that, "about 70% of debt relief accrues to borrowers in the top 60% of the income distribution."