Republican vows to SUE Biden administration over latest student loan plan with $1.2 billion in handouts accusing the president of trying to ‘curry favor’ with younger voters ahead of the 2024 election

Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach is vowing to sue the Biden administration to block President Biden’s latest attempt to cancel student loan debt.

The Biden administration has forgiven $143.6 billion in student loans to nearly four million Americans since Biden took office, but the Republican official wants to put a stop to that.

Kobach appeared on Fox News on Thursday, where he said he will file the lawsuit in Kansas on Thursday.

He said the case against student loan forgiveness would be similar to the case in which a group of Republican states sued to block President Biden’s original plan to forgive up to $20,000 in student loans.

Kansas was one of six states that the Biden administration sued in 2022 over its first debt forgiveness plan.

In June 2023, the Supreme Court ruled against the Biden administration, but President Biden and education officials vowed to continue their efforts to cancel student loan debt.

The Biden administration has forgiven $144 billion in student loans, despite the Supreme Court blocking the president’s first student loan forgiveness plan

Just months after the Supreme Court blocked Biden’s first student debt plan, the administration launched the SAVE plan, an income boost repayment plan that reduces the amount of time and money some borrowers have to pay before their student debt is forgiven.

Last month, the government began canceling billions in debt under the plan.

“It was illegal when the Biden administration tried to cancel student loan debt in 2022, and the Supreme Court ruled that in a 6-3 decision last summer,” Kobach said.

He criticized the government and accused them of taking a similar step.

“Now they’re doing it again, and they’re kind of keeping their cards close to their chest about how they’re doing it,” Kobach said. “It has become clear that this will likely be well in excess of the $200 billion debt cancellation.”

He said the majority of student loan borrowers will have their “entire debt forgiven,” arguing they are doing so by “twisting the words of federal law.”

“This time they say, ‘Oh, we’re just adjusting the debt repayment terms,’ but that doesn’t mean the debt repayment terms are changed if you take the debt all the way to zero and you don’t have to pay the debt to pay back. first name.’

Kobach blasted the move as unfair to taxpayers who did not go to college or take out loans, forcing them to cover the debt burden of those who did.

Kobach announced he will file the lawsuit in federal court in Kansas. He acknowledged that the case would likely end up on appeal to the 10th Circuit Court and possibly return to the Supreme Court.

He said it is something that is politically important and that voters will go to the polls for the presidential election in November.

“We hope to have a court order before November,” Kobach said.

“It could just be a coincidence, or maybe the government is trying to curry favor with people with student debt,” he said, questioning the timing of the latest debt forgiveness effort.

Biden spoke in California in February after the White House announced the cancellation of $1.2 billion in student loans under the SAVE plan

This week, the White House launched the “SAVE Day of Action” to promote participation in the program. They expect their efforts to reach more than 100 million Americans.

The SAVE plan is an income-driven repayment plan that forgives the debt of borrowers who withdraw $12,000 or less after just ten years.

In February, the government began forgiving debt under the plan, including $1.2 billion for 153,000 borrowers.

The Ministry of Education said it would continue to identify borrowers eligible to have their debts forgiven on an ongoing basis.

Republicans in Congress tried to pass a resolution to block the plan, but failed to gain the necessary votes.

The Biden administration has taken multiple steps to forgive student loan debt, including changes to public service loan forgiveness and income-driven repayment programs, as well as canceling debt for borrowers with permanent disabilities and more.

The multi-pronged approach has allowed them to cancel nearly $144 billion in loan debt for nearly four million Americans since 2021.