It’s Thursday.
We’ve moved on from Inflation Reduction Act Week(s); at least for now…
There are 12 days to go before President Biden hosts the celebration to celebrate the Inflation Reduction Act law.
His public schedule for Thursday, August 25th 2022:
| 12:45 PM | In-Town Pool Call Time In-Town Pool |
| 12:45 PM | Press Briefing by Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre James S. Brady Press Briefing Room |
| 3:45 PM | The President departs the White House en route Montgomery County, Maryland South GroundsIn-Town Travel Pool |
| 5:00 PM | The President participates in a reception for the Democratic National Committee Restricted In-Town Pool |
| 7:00 PM | The President participates in a rally for the Democratic National Committee Open Press |
| 8:25 PM | The President arrives at the White House South GroundsIn-Town Travel Pool |
President Biden dropped us 3 tweets before article post time. He added 7 tweets and 1 retweet giving him a Thursday Tweeting Total of 10 tweets and 1 retweet.
President Biden: Hey folks, I wanted you to hear it right from me. We put out a plan to bring relief to millions of working and middle-class people with student loans, and here’s what you should know:
President Biden con’t: We’re going to forgive $10,000 of federal student loan debt, keeping my campaign promise. For the people who need the hep the most–the folks who went to school on Pell Grants we’re going to forgive a total of $20,000. We’re going to target this relief. Help is going to go to people making less than $125,000 a year.
President Biden con’t: Next, we’re going to give anyone of undergraduate loans a chance to sign up and cap your loan payments at 5 percent of your monthly income. I also want to make sure folks have enough time to transition back to paying regularly. So we’re going to extend the student loan pause one final time through December 31st of this year.
President Biden con’t: There’s a lot more here, more than I have time to say in this video, but I’ll leave you with this: our middle class families deserve breathing room. It’s the whole reason I ran. And this plan will give opportunity to millions of families who need it the most.
The YouTube is 20 minutes and 43 seconds long. His full remarks (I wasn’t sure they’d post them in time for article post time) can be found here.
President Biden: You know, and — because he believed, as I do, that an education is a ticket to a better life.
President Biden: Student loan payments pause is going to end. It’s going to end December thirty- — I’m extending to December 31st, 2022, and it’s going to end at that time. It’s time for the payments to resume.
President Biden: Both of these targeted actions are for families who need it the most — working and middle-class people hit especially hard during the pandemic making under $125,000 a year. You make more than that, you don’t qualify.
President Biden: Third thing: We’re fixing the student loan program system itself. We’ve talked about this at length. This is really important.
President Biden: We’re also fixing what’s called — and this has been the bane of — driving me crazy when I was out of office — the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program. Now, this program forgives student loans to encourage those students who have those loans if they go into public service.
Student Aid.gov/debt-relief announcement.
President Biden: That’s what today’s announcement is about. It’s about opportunity. It’s about giving people a fair shot. It’s about the one word America can be defined by: possibilities. It’s all about providing possibilities.
President Biden: Working closely with the Secretary of Education — he’s got the hard job — you know, Secretary Cardona, here’s what my administration is going to do: provide more breathing room for people so they have less burden by student debt and, quite frankly, to fix the system itself, which we came in and we both acknowledged was broken, in terms of — anyway.
President Biden: All of this means people can start to finally crawl out from under that mountain of debt to get on top of their rent and their utilities, to finally think about buying a home or starting a family or starting a business.
Similar remarks text to tweet text:
President Biden: Second, when I campaigned for President, I made a commitment — I made a commitment that we’d provide student debt relief. And I’m honoring that commitment today.
President Biden: Here’s what that means: If you make under $125,000, you’ll get $10,000 knocked off your student debt. If you make under $125,000 a year and you received a Pell Grant, you’ll get an additional $10,000 knocked off that total for a total of $20,000 relief.
President Biden: All of — all of this means is the entire — an entire generation is now saddled with unsustainable debt in exchange for an attempt, at least, at a college degree.
“Incredible” only appears once in the remark text:
President Biden: First, we’ve made incredible progress advancing America’s economic recovery. We’ve wound down pandemic relief programs like the ones for unemployment insurance and small businesses. It’s time we do the same thing for student loans.
President Biden: Here’s what that means: If you make under $125,000, you’ll get $10,000 knocked off your student debt. If you make under $125,000 a year and you received a Pell Grant, you’ll get an additional $10,000 knocked off that total for a total of $20,000 relief. Ninety-five percent of the borrowers can benefit from these actions. That’s 43 million people.
President Biden: No high-income individual or high-income household, on top of the 5 percent — in the top 5 percent of incomes, by the way, will benefit from this action. Period. In fact, about 90 percent of the eligible beneficiaries make under $75,000 a family.
He’s tossed up 2 tweets so far for Thursday…
President Biden: The burden is especially heavy on Black and Hispanic borrowers, who on average have less family wealth to pay for it. There’s no — they don’t own their homes to borrow against to be able to pay for college. And the pandemic only made things worse.
The second line of tweet text does not appear in remarks text.
President Biden: Second, when I campaigned [my campaign; is what he says in the video from both the shared tweet and the YouTube] for President, I made a commitment — I made a commitment that we’d provide student debt relief. And I’m honoring that commitment today. Using the authority Congress granted the Department of Education, we will forgive $10,000 in outstanding federal student loans.
In addition, students who come from low-income families which allowed them to qualify to receive a Pell Grant will have their debt reduced $20,000. Both of these targeted actions are for families who need it the most — working and middle-class people hit especially hard during the pandemic making under $125,000 a year. You make more than that, you don’t qualify. No high-income individual or high-income household, on top of the 5 percent — in the top 5 percent of incomes, by the way, will benefit from this action. Period. In fact, about 90 percent of the eligible beneficiaries make under $75,000 a family.
President Biden: Ninety-five percent of the borrowers can benefit from these actions. That’s 43 million people. Of the 43 million, over 60 percent are Pell Grant recipients. That’s 27 million people who will get $20,000 in debt relief. Nearly 45 percent can have their student debt fully cancelled. That’s 20 million people who can start getting on with their lives.
The White House fact-sheet on the student loan forgiveness plan can be found here.
Information about the plan can be found @Studentaid.gov/debt-relief-announcement/
The White House posted the background press call on the student debt relief program it can be found here.
This is an Open Thread.
