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NoBSforGma t1_jan0ni0 wrote

If this happens, I'm guessing the Biden Administration will find another way to find debt relief for students. It could be just a procedural matter that needs to be done differently.

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marx_marvelous__ t1_jan6z18 wrote

Or they will consider it a political win for trying and say you’ve had 3.5 years of 0% interest and deferred payments; time to start paying it back.

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RickMoranisFanPage t1_jao8i35 wrote

The smart political move would be to keep them paused in the event of an adverse ruling by SCOTUS and tell Congress to address the issue. From my understanding the Supreme Court is only ruling on the cancellation of student loans not the pause in payments.

The big lenders probably have a bunch of sway in the WH so your scenario is infinitely more likely.

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eldiablonoche t1_jaox4wv wrote

I imagine the lenders would sue the government if Biden tried to "indefinitely suspend repayments". When it is a temporary measure, the vultures lick their lips knowing things always go their way eventually. If it were effectively permanent, they'd riot. But knowing that both parties are bought and paid for it won't go that far.

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jrm19941994 t1_jap1168 wrote

They would have no reason to sue, payments can only be suspended for federal loans.

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RickMoranisFanPage t1_jap2pvb wrote

Aren’t they serviced by a publicly traded company? I imagine investors there aren’t too happy, but I don’t know the financial situation there.

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bundleofstix t1_jap4co8 wrote

They're federal contractors, they work for the government. If they piss off the government they can just be fired.

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RickMoranisFanPage t1_jap7lox wrote

They’d likely lose in court since it is specifically a power delegated to the Secretary of Education by an act of Congress.

It’d put pressure on the Republican candidate. Are they going to campaign on resuming payments on 40 million people?

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Semanticss t1_japy7iy wrote

Doesn't both the suspension of payments and the forgiveness apply to only federal loans?

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eldiablonoche t1_jasugq6 wrote

Apparently so. Someone corrected me on a separate comment but I didn't think to self-correct or amend my comment. Thanks for calling out my inaccuracy.

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[deleted] t1_jaqxwyu wrote

[deleted]

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RickMoranisFanPage t1_jar4nka wrote

I think it just has to stem from an emergency, not during a declared emergency. Even so, this is a power Congress delegated to the executive branch.

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JigglyWiener t1_jan94qn wrote

Yeah, doesn't make up for the initially huge unemployment, now high inflation, and the childcare disaster that weirdly gets so little attention given the scope of the problem. Careers and lives were on hold or set back for 3.5 years.

The administration is redefining the AGI calculation used to calculate income driven repayment plans and on top of that a new plan that reduces % of the new AGI is coming out. I figure it'll cost me about the same as my car payment instead of double my car payment based on the last numbers I saw. That's their backup plan.

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DoeCommaJohn t1_janc56w wrote

Politically, this seems like the best case scenario. Biden gets all the brownie points from trying to relieve student debt, the conservatives get blamed for stopping it, everybody gets reminded that the court is political, and there is no risk of economic impacts from spending 2 trillion dollars

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MorelikeBestvirginia t1_jasct5b wrote

To be clear, it's not spending money. It's just deciding not to collect it. That's very different.

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DoeCommaJohn t1_jase5qf wrote

How is giving a trillion dollars different from not receiving a trillion dollars? /gen

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thisrockismyboone t1_japazl0 wrote

Nah. Lots of people will remember it as he didn't follow through on his promise and the Republicans will push the narrative down our throats the next 8 years.

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whiskeyriver0987 t1_jan7wwd wrote

If it gets blocked, the reasoning will likely include that something of this magnitude will have to be approved by congress, which would prevent basically anything Biden/executive branch can do unilaterally. It's also going to turn this into an election issue for the next election and considering it massively affects around 40 million people from across the political spectrum, which doesn't bode well for republican party that is increasingly catering to their most extreme members and alienating the moderates and centrists they NEED to win even moderately contested races.

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liortulip OP t1_jan0rf6 wrote

Oh that's really interesting - do you know what other mechanisms are at the administration's disposal?

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dravenonred t1_jan42ga wrote

Probably making it a central campaign issue and driving youth turnout to return Biden to the White House and Congress to the Democrats.

"We did it, they stopped it"

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Howamidriving27 t1_jan87zr wrote

That's all it's ever been anyway. Biden was instrumental in making student loans unforgivable through bankruptcy, drug his feet on the issue, and finally proposed what most progressives would consider to be woefully inadequate forgiveness.

Honestly I bet Joe and old guard Dems are probably jumping for joy because they still have political level to pull in 2024.

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NoBSforGma t1_jan1t2q wrote

No, I don't. I've just seen this happen in other court cases that were decided based on some kind of procedural problem.

Like...."OK, if you don't like us doing it THIS way, we will do it THAT way."

It may turn out that if the Court blocks the current student debt relief, it will say........ "... because something something something" and the Biden Administration can overcome that objection just by doing it a different way.

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DoeCommaJohn t1_jancu5d wrote

In theory, they could change some wording so that the debt doesn’t actually go away, but can’t be collected, so it technically isn’t debt relief, but that isn’t likely to work

Realistically, the only way this will happen is if dems get another trifecta, and with Manchin, they would probably need 51 senators. The court will say that only congress has the power to forgive debts of this magnitude and Republicans will never in a million years support this

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eldiablonoche t1_jaoxf19 wrote

>In theory, they could change some wording so that the debt doesn’t actually go away, but can’t be collected, so it technically isn’t debt relief.

Which would result in a metric F-ton of lawsuits on top of the political pressure on top of the lobbying on top of etc. etc. etc.

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Jexp_t t1_jb4vkyb wrote

There’s direct textual authority from Congress in the statute permitting the president to do this, so if the court decides, on its own to violate the law, there will need to be more drastic measures than just a redo.

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NoBSforGma t1_jb4vqbn wrote

Thanks for that information! You obviously know a LOT more about it than I do!

Here's hoping for the correct outcome.

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