Last month President Joe Biden announced that $10,000 of federal loan debt would be forgiven for borrowers earning less than $125,000 per year. Pell Grant recipients would get up to $20,000 forgiven. Federal student loan payments will be paused until the end of the year.
Manchin however has said that he believes there are other ways for those struggling to get on top of repayments. In the past, he has said how working for the federal government is a great way of reducing one’s loan.
Currently, the nation’s federal student debt is at $1.6 trillion.
More than 43 million Americans have some form of student loan debt. According to federal data, only one-third of Americans owe less than $10,000 while only half have a debt of less than $20,000.
A Penn Wharton Budget Model showed that debt forgiveness of $10,000 for those borrowers earning less than $125,000 is going to cost taxpayers around $300 billion.
Some Republicans have also criticized Biden saying that this will be student loan forgiveness for the wealthy. The Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel has also said that this is essentially a “handout to the rich” and that in a way Biden is punishing those who worked hard to save for college or who chose a different career to not incur all the debt.
