Biden’s Plan to Pay Off Loans for 23 Million

… a family of farmers in rural Wisconsin, I had to take out student loans to afford my tuition. Together we have over $75,000 in student loans.

(00:11)
While still in school, I remember I’d saved enough money to make my biggest payment to date, feeling like I was getting ahead. I was heartbroken to discover that the $1,000 I saved couldn’t even cover the interest that had piled up. After graduating, I discovered my passion for digital marketing. Two years ago, Sam and I pursued our dream of becoming entrepreneurs and founded Marketini Media, a marketing firm based in Madison Wisconsin.

(00:49)
Shortly after becoming business owners, the President’s forgiveness program was struck down, devastating us along with millions of Americans. Fortunately, President Biden announced that he would not back down and announced his SAVE plan. Sam and I enrolled as soon as possible. Prior to the SAVE plan, we were making monthly payments totaling $700. Now, after the save plan, our monthly payments have dropped to $0. And we no longer have the fear of our balances increasing because of runaway interest.

(01:42)
Because of President Biden’s commitment to hardworking Americans, the save plan empowered us to reinvest in our business, hire our first employee, and help promote economic growth throughout the state of Wisconsin. For Sam and me, it has truly made all the difference to have a president who believes in our dreams and has our backs. Now it’s with immense honor and gratitude that I introduced to you, our president, Joe Biden.

Hello Wisconsin. Hello. Hello. Hello. Please have a seat if you have one. Gov., thank you. Thank you for nice introduction. And thank you, Ashley, for introducing me and sharing your story. I, like an awful lot of people in this audience, was the first in my family to go to college and watch my dad struggle to help me get there and get all the kids there and it wasn’t easy. But I asked the rhetorical question, how can we be the leading country in the world without the best education system in the world and access to it? You and Sam are from rural Wisconsin. First in your families to go to college. Life partners, business partners, hardworking, paying off your loans only to see your dreams being crushed by student debt. But now thanks to what we’re doing, that student debt is no longer holding you back. With this new freedom you started your own business, it helps women and minority-owned businesses right here in Wisconsin. That’s what this is all about. I think we’re all in this room share one goal, give everybody a fair shot, just a shot. Freedom to chase their dreams.

(04:12)
You’ve got some of the great leaders in Wisconsin here as well, and I mean that sincerely. I think Tony knows this. Your governor, I think he’s one of the best governors in the United States. You really are, Tony. And what progress we’ve made, and we made a lot, is no small part because of Tony. And the bad news for Tony is we’ve become friends. And Mark, thank you, Representative. Thanks for the passport to get into the district. I appreciate it. You’re doing a hell of a job.

(04:53)
And Madison Mayor, thank you. Where is she? There you are. Stand up. I get instructions from my wife who’s a schoolteacher, she said, “Make sure you say hello to the mayor. I really liked being with her. “Thank you Mayor for taking care of her. And the state and local tribal leaders here today, thanks for making it available. Where are you? Stand up to. Thank you. And by the way, it’s Indian Nations. And while she couldn’t be here, I’m always grateful for one of the best senators in the United States Senate, Tammy Baldwin. She really is. She’s a great partner in education, infrastructure, buy American so much more. She’s done so much.

(05:40)
And when Kamala and I ran in this lead county, we made a commitment to fix our broken student loan system because while a college degree still is a ticket to the middle class, that ticket’s becoming much too expensive, much too expensive. In fact, things are a lot different from when college tuition was more affordable and borrowing for college, repaying those loans was more reasonable. Today, too many Americans, especially young people, are saddled with unsustainable debts in exchange for a college degree. The ability for working and middle-class folks to repay their student loans has become so burdensome that a lot can’t repay it for even decades after being in school. And I mean that sincerely, many of you know that sitting in front of me. Even when they have worked hard and pay their student loans, their debt increases, not diminishes.

(06:32)
Too many people feel the strain and stress wondering if they can get married, have their first child, start a family, because even if they get by, they still have this crushing, crushing debt. It’s not just to drag on them, it’s a drag on our local economies. It’s a drag on… no, it really is. It’s a drag on the economies. When you can’t afford to buy a home, start that small business chase that career that you’ve been dreaming about for a long time.

(07:02)
That’s why early in my term, I announced a major plan to provide more than 40 million working middle-class American student debt relief. Tens of millions… tens of millions of people’s debt was literally about to get canceled. But then some of my Republican friends and elected officials and special interests sued us and the Supreme Court blocked us. Well, that didn’t stop us. No, I mean it sincerely. We continue to find alternatives to pass the reduce student debt payments that are not challengeable. And all together, my administration has taken the most significant action to provide student debt relief ever in the history of this country.

(07:48)
We started by fixing two existing programs to get more people student debt relief that they were entitled to. First, we fixed what was called the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, which was designed to make sure those in public service, school teachers, police officers, firefighters, social workers, faith leaders, public servants would get the student loan forgiven in 10 years if they’ve made their payments for those first 10 years, and after 10 years in public service, they would have their loan forgiven. When I took office, 7,000 had their debts forgiven, but the program wasn’t working very well. So I called in the Department of Education and other departments and we’ve got to fix this and fix it now. Thanks to our reform, nearly 900,000 have had their debts forgiven, including 16,400 right here in Wisconsin, right here in Wisconsin.

(08:51)
Second, return what’s called an Income Driven Repayment program, which I’ve renamed the SAVE program, the most affordable repayment plan ever. Before I took office, student borrowers had to pay 10% of their discretionary income on a monthly basis for what they borrowed, 10% discretionary income. That’s income after you pay necessities like housing and food. A lot of people didn’t have the means to pay 10%. So I was able to, under my authority, have the department cut that to 5% for undergraduate loans. Now that means no one with undergraduate loans, whether community college or four-year college, they have to pay more than 5% of their discretionary income to repay those loans starting in July, starting in July of this year. And for millions of borrowers who make less than $32,000 a year now after they’re out, their monthly student payments will be dropped to zero as long as they’re that… Really.

(09:49)
And already close to 8 million Americans enrolled in the city plan, including 135,000 here in Wisconsin. Because of our reforms, 25,000 people a month nationwide have been receiving letters from me about their debt they had for all those years is finally going to be forgiven. But I’m not stopping here. Today, I’m proud to announce five major actions to continue to relieve student debt from more than 30 million Americans since I started my administration. First, my administration will propose a new rule to cancel up to $20,000 in runaway interest for any borrower that owes more now than when they started paying the loan. It’s a big difference. And for low and middle-class families enrolled in my SAVE program, we’ll cancel all of your interest, all of your interest. Second, we plan to cancel student debt for borrowers who still owe student loans even though they started repaying them more than two decades ago.

(11:09)
Folks, third, we plan to cancel debt for about 2 million borrowers who would be eligible for debt forgiveness through the SAVE program, Public Service Loan Forgiveness or other debt-canceling programs, but are not enrolled in these programs. Some of you are only finding out after the fact as you’re a teacher, a firefighter or a cop that you qualify but you just didn’t know about it before. But you’re eligible no matter how long it’s been, you’ve been out of the program. Fourth, we plan to cancel debt for borrowers who the Department of Education determines were cheated by universities that left students in unaffordable loans and delivered little in benefits to students. And you know one of those colleges who is closed, I won’t mention it. And finally, the Department of Education will propose a new rule to cancel student debt for Americans facing financial hardships from child care to healthcare to prevent them from paying back their loans.

(12:12)
And over the coming months, the Department of Education will propose and then implement these plans. And starting this fall, we plan to deliver up to $20,000 in interest relief to over 20 million borrowers and full forgiveness for millions more. I can tell by the looks on some of your faces, this relief is not news to you all because this relief can be life changing. Life changing, just as you heard from Ashley. Folks, I’ll never stop to deliver student debt relief and hardworking Americans, and it’s only in the interest of America that we do it. And again, it’s for the good of our economy that’s growing stronger and stronger, and it is. By freeing millions of Americans from this crushing debt of student debt, it means they can finally get on with their lives instead of their lives being put on hold. That’s why every American making a student loan payment should go to StudentAid.gov, StudentAid.gov to learn more about these plans and see if any of them fit for you.

(13:20)
Look, that’s not all. People say to me, “It’s great you’re helping people into college. How about all those hardworking people grew up and had no opportunity to go to college?” I get it. That’s the neighborhood I come from. That’s why a big part of my economic agenda is investing in all Americans whether you attend college or not. We’re expanding career and technical education at high schools. Think how many of these shop programs have been dropped? People not knowing whether they want to work with their hands, people not being able to get started. To provide pathways to good middle class jobs without college, my labor department is investing $200 million in grants for registered apprenticeship programs around the country so folks can learn a skilled trade.

(14:09)
And by the way, parenthetically all the money, the CHIPS program I put together, well guess what? It’s going to invest over $50 billion in new programs, new ability to make these chips here in America. And in those fabs they call them, guess what? You know what the average salary is? $110,000 a year and you don’t need a college degree. But you need a skill. Programs like the one taught right here at Madison Technical College, you lead good paying jobs and high growth fields and clean energy, healthcare, technology. These apprenticeship programs are four and five years before you qualify to have a license. I love people saying, “Well, why are you so pro-union, pro-labor?” A lot of people think you can walk up and say, “I want to be an electrician,”

(15:05)
And you’re an electrician. Five years of apprenticeship. It’s like going to college. Five years. I also want to make, and I’ve been pushing this, and if I’m reelected, I’m going to push it hard and we’re going to get it done next time is I want to make community college tuition-free so you won’t need loans at all. Cut in half the cost of going to college. If we do this, the economic gains will far outweigh the cost. And that’s not hyperbole. That’s the truth. This, in addition to historic investments we’re making to modernize our infrastructure, roads, bridges, high speed internet, clean water for every American. We need more qualified people doing this work to bring back manufacturing back to America to build new factories in your communities. And I’m investing in the American agenda. We expect to create millions of jobs over the next decade. We’ve already created over 15 million new jobs, 15 million new jobs. And a significant number of these do not require college degree, including across Wisconsin.

(16:20)
Let me close with this. My dad used to say, and it’s not hyperbole, my dad was a hardworking guy, very well-read man, got into college. He’s from, everybody thinks it’s Baltimore. It’s Baltimore. He was from Baltimore and he got into college to go to Johns Hopkins. I didn’t know that until after he passed away, but it was during the war. Just prior to the war. He was working in the shipyard and he couldn’t go. Hey, he had this phrase, he said, “Joey, a job’s about a lot more than a paycheck. It’s about your dignity, it’s about respect. It’s about having a place in the community where you in fact feel like you belong. It’s about being able to look your kid in the eye and say, honey, it’s going to be okay.” That’s what we’re doing. We’re giving people a chance to make it. Not a guarantee, just a chance to make it. And that’s why I’ve never been more optimistic about our future.

(17:16)
And we just have to remember who we are. We’re the United States of America and there’s nothing beyond our capacity if we do it together. Nothing, nothing, nothing. God bless you all and may God protect our troops. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.