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President Joe Biden celebrated recent court wins during a speech in Delaware about his student debt forgiveness plan, saying that both a state court and the Supreme Court said they were "on Biden's side" when it comes to federal relief.
On Friday, Biden criticized Republican members of Congress and Republican governors for "doing everything they can to deny this relief," calling their outrage "wrong and hypocritical."
"We're not letting them get away with it," the president said from Delaware State University. "They've been fighting us in the courts, but just yesterday, state court and the Supreme Court said, 'No, we're on Biden's side.'"
On Thursday, a federal judge in Missouri and Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett rejected attempts to block Biden's student debt relief program, dealing dual setbacks to Republican-led efforts to thwart Biden's sweeping measure.
Under Biden's one-time student loan debt forgiveness, borrowers earning less than $125,000 per year are eligible to receive $10,000 in relief, with borrowers who received Pell Grants eligible for up to $20,000.
Biden said he would "never apologize" for helping Americans pay off student debt, especially not to the same Republican officials who voted for tax cuts for the wealthy.
"I don't want to hear it from MAGA Republican officials, who had hundreds of thousands of dollars of debts—even millions of dollars—in pandemic relief loans forgiven, who now are attacking me for helping working-class and middle-class Americans," Biden said.
The president singled out a number of congressional Republicans who have had loans forgiven, including Representatives Marjorie Taylor Greene and Vern Buchanan, who he said respectively had $180,000 and $2.3 million in business loans forgiven during COVID.
"Can't make this stuff up," Biden said. "Republican governors wrote me a letter saying this relief only helps the elite few."
"Y'all know you're the elite few?" he joked with the student crowd in Delaware. "I knew you were really special, but no, you're the elite few."
On Thursday, Judge Henry Autrey, an appointee of President George W. Bush, dismissed a lawsuit brought by Nebraska, Missouri, Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas and South Carolina that argued Biden was overstepping his authority. Autrey said the states had not suffered injuries allowing them to sue.
In a separate suit, Barrett rejected a challenge from a taxpayers' association in Wisconsin without comment and without referring the application to the full court, suggesting it did not have solid legal standing.
On Friday, Biden said 22 million people have already applied for the debt relief and encouraged other borrowers to do the same. He touted the process as being simple, taking less than five minutes to complete and only asking four questions.
"My commitment—when I ran for president of the United States—was that if I was elected, I'd make the government work and deliver for the people," he said in his speech. "A simple application process keeps that commitment just as I'm keeping my commitment to relieve student debt as borrowers recover from the economic crisis caused by the once-in-a-lifetime pandemic."
It is estimated that 40 million people will qualify under his plan.
About the writer
Katherine Fung is a Newsweek senior reporter based in New York City. She has covered U.S. politics and culture extensively. ... Read more