乔·拜登总统周五在特拉华州立大学发表讲话，庆祝他的学生贷款豁免计划的“成功启动”，因为他的政府推出了一项官方申请联邦法院驳回了共和党的两项法律挑战。
拜登对特拉华州的访问——特拉华州是一所历史上的黑人学院和大学，超过75%的学生获得了佩尔助学金，因此有资格在大约4000万受影响的美国人中获得最高数额的债务减免——是在最高法院法官艾米·科尼·巴雷特拒绝了一个保守的威斯康星州纳税人团体提出的阻止该计划的请求后一天。同样在周四，一名联邦地区法院法官驳回了由六个共和党统治的州提出的挑战该措施的另一项诉讼。
距离中期选举还有不到两周的时间，拜登强调了他是如何说债务减免将对美国中产阶级产生改变生活的影响，同时抨击了他的共和党对手，他们声称他的政策对纳税人和那些没有上过大学的人不公平。
“我们收到了全国各地超过10，000名学生的来信，到目前为止已经有10，000人给我写信了。申请起来就像和朋友出去玩或在家看电影时注册一样简单，”拜登说。“绝大多数人都在他们的手机上应用，这很简单，非常简单。现在，在不到一周的时间里，将近2200万人已经向我们提供了这些信息。”
“[共和党人]甚至在法庭上与此抗争。但就在昨天，州法院和最高法院说不，我们站在拜登一边。”
周四，密苏里州、阿肯色州、堪萨斯州、内布拉斯加州和南卡罗来纳州的州检察长以及爱荷华州的法律代表上个月在密苏里州联邦法院提起的诉讼被美国地区法官亨利·奥崔驳回，他写道“法院缺乏审理此案的管辖权。”巴雷特周四驳回了威斯康星州布朗县纳税人协会的紧急呼吁，没有解释。
这两项决定都是在本周日之前做出的，这是教育部在法庭文件中表示将开始发放贷款的最早时间。
债务减免计划是一项备受期待的举措，旨在实现拜登8月份的声明，即收入低于125，000美元的个人可以申请高达10，000美元的债务减免，或高达20，000美元的符合条件的借款人，他们也是佩尔赠款的接受者。
周一，随着救济申请的推出，该计划正式启动，这是这位前总统的竞选承诺。他上周五的讲话，距离中期选举只有18天，中期选举可能剥夺民主党在国会的多数席位，凸显了他兑现誓言的能力。
总统此前点名批评了共和党议员，这些议员批评他的方式被他认为是虚伪的。上周，他提到了亚利桑那州共和党众议员保罗·戈萨尔和肯塔基州共和党参议员兰德·保罗，他们要求民主党领导的资金来自他们公开反对的一揽子计划。
拜登的学生贷款胜利圈来了只是一个公告发布几小时后周五早上，他谈到了削减赤字，他声称1.4万亿美元的削减意味着“美国历史上最大的一年下降”。
周五上午，拜登表示，部分债务减免与他的学生贷款豁免计划有关，该计划估计将增加4300亿美元的赤字。
拜登说，学生贷款计划是负担得起的，“因为我执政的头两年”。这是因为历史性的赤字削减，正是共和党投票反对的赤字削减……今天上午，我的政府宣布，今年赤字下降了。"
在结束他的学生贷款讨论后，拜登列举了他迄今为止的立法成就，触及了许多话题，从赦免非暴力的大麻相关定罪到争取将堕胎权合法化。在拜登提到的所有问题中，后一点赢得了最长时间的掌声。
“如果我们保持参议院，挑选几个参议员，我们会看到它。我们将确保我们在每个州完全编纂罗伊诉韦德案，全国编纂，”拜登在一片欢呼声和掌声中说。
Biden touts student debt relief ahead of midterms, calls GOP criticism 'hypocritical'
President Joe Biden, speaking at Delaware State University on Friday, celebrated the "successful launch" of his student loan forgiveness program this week as his administration rolled out an official application for borrowers and federal courts rejected two GOP legal challenges.
Biden's visit to Delaware State -- a Historically Black College and University where over 75% of students received a Pell Grant and therefore are eligible to get the highest amount of debt relief among some 40 million Americans affected -- comes a day after Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett rejected a request to block the program brought by a conservative Wisconsin taxpayers group. Also on Thursday, a federal district court judge struck down a separate lawsuit challenging the measure, brought by six Republican-governed states.
With less than two weeks until the midterm elections, Biden highlighted how he said the debt relief will have a life-changing impact on middle-class Americans while lambasting his GOP opponents who have claimed his policy was unfair to taxpayers and those who didn't attend college.
"We're hearing from people all over the country, of over 10,000 students, that have written me letters so far, literally 10,000 so far. And it's about as easy to apply as signing up while hanging out with their friends or at home and watching a movie," Biden said. "The vast majority are applying on their phones and it's easy as just simply it's easy. Now in less than a week just close to 22 million people have already given us the information."
"[Republicans] even fought this in the courts. But just yesterday, State Court and the Supreme Court said no, we're on Biden's side."
On Thursday, a lawsuit filed in a federal court in Missouri last month by state attorneys general from Missouri, Arkansas, Kansas, Nebraska and South Carolina, as well as legal representatives from Iowa, was dismissed by U.S. District Judge Henry Autrey who wrote "the Court lacks jurisdiction to hear this case." Barrett on Thursday dismissed the emergency appeal from a Wisconsin-based Brown County Taxpayers Association without explanation.
Both decisions were made ahead of this Sunday, which is the earliest the Department of Education has said in court filings it would begin discharging loans.
The debt forgiveness plan is a much-anticipated move to accomplish Biden's August announcement that individuals making less that $125,00 can apply for up to $10,000 of debt relief, or as much as $20,000 for eligible borrowers who were also Pell Grant recipients.
It was formally launched with the rollout of relief applications on Monday, a campaign promise of the former president's. His speech on Friday, just 18 days before a midterm election that could strip Democrats of their majority in Congress, highlighted his ability to make good on his vow.
The president has previously name-checked GOP lawmakers who have criticized him in ways he's deemed hypocritical. Last week, he mentioned Republican Rep. Paul Gosar of Arizona and Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky for requesting Democratic-led funds from packages that they publicly opposed.
Biden's student loan victory lap comes just a few hours after an announcement from him on Friday morning on deficit reduction, where he claimed a $1.4 trillion decrease signified the "the largest one year drop in American history."
On Friday morning, Biden said that some of that debt reduction is linked to his student loan forgiveness plan, which is estimated to add $430 billion to the deficit.
The student loan program is affordable "because the first two years of my administration," Biden said. That's because of the historic deficit reduction, the very deficit reduction that Republicans voted against …This morning, my administration announced that this year the deficit fell."
After finishing his student loan discussion, Biden ticked through a list of his legislative achievements thus far, touching on many topics from pardoning non-violent marijuana-related convictions to fighting to codify the right to abortion. The latter point drew the longest round of applause of any issue Biden mentioned.
"If we maintain the Senate, pick up a couple of senators, we're gonna see to it. We're gonna see to it that we completely codify Roe v. Wade in every state, national codification," Biden said to a roar of shouts and applause.
