Biden-Harris Administration Tries to Buy More Votes With This Latest Move on Student Loan Debt

With a few more months left until President Joe Biden's presidency comes to an end, and even less time until the November election, the Biden-Harris administration is looking to buy more votes by yet again announcing a round of what they refer to as "student debt cancellation."

Such an announcement was shared to the White House's X account on Thursday morning, noting the "cancellation," which actually redistributes the debt to taxpayers, is for "nearly 5 million Americans." The post is unhelpfully vague in pointing out that such a move has been done "through various actions."

The Biden-Harris Administration has approved student debt cancellation for nearly 5 million Americans through various actions – and we will never stop working to make higher education affordable.
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) August 22, 2024

When the White House says they "will never stop working to make higher education affordable," they look to actually have a point when it comes to this "never stop" tactic. Over a year ago now, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against the Biden-Harris plan for student loan debt. That hasn't stopped the president from trying to buy votes with several rounds of such actions, a move he's even bragged about multiple times.

Such plans for student loan debt could of course just cause universities to raise the cost of tuition even further now, though.

The post also looks to potentially be problematic in a way that doesn't even have to do with student loan debt, though. As she runs for president against former and potentially future President Donald Trump, Vice President Kamala Harris looks to distance herself from the unpopular Biden. Yet such a post directly ties Harris to this administration, which it should, since she is the sitting vice president. As we covered at the time last week, POLITICO was savaged for a headline claiming it was Trump who was the one looking to tie Harris to Biden.

In late June, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri granted Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey's motion to block Biden's plan. As a press release from Bailey's office highlighted at the time, the Biden-Harris '"SAVE' Plan, which in reality would have cost Americans $475 billion – $45 billion more than its last unlawful student loan plan."

The 8th Circuit Court of Appeals also earlier this month issued an injunction against the SAVE Act, and more recently declined to clarify the ruling.

Even with such actions from the Biden-Harris administration, a study from the Wall Street Journal shows that those Americans who were supposed to benefit are still financially struggling.

As a Fox Business article noted:

The report goes on to quote Constantine Yannelis, an associate professor of finance at the University of Chicago, as saying, "For the typical borrower, the forgiveness is nice but not life-changing."
Along with other researchers, Yannelis found that borrowers typically replace their debt with another once it is forgiven, including through credit cards, home loans and auto loans.
That same research cited no difference in the borrowers' credit scores.

Despite how the Biden-Harris administration keeps facing court losses, even more student loan "cancellation" moves may be coming, and in the form of an October surprise. Last week, the New York Post warned that "Democrats are plotting a brazen $147B student-loan debt 'October surprise,'" though it could come even sooner to coincide with early voting.