Last month, when the Supreme Court rejected President Biden’s student debt relief program, I can’t say that I was surprised. Last year, it was abortion, and now, alongside an ambitious debt relief plan, affirmative action is out the window as well.
Throughout this current presidential term, America has been riddled with crises, and any attempt at positive change is being met with staggering resistance. We are spiraling backward, our legs swept from under us with every push forward.
We need a win, and President Biden knows it.
So now, the Biden administration is shifting focus. Instead of wiping out $400 billion of student debt in one fell swoop, they are attempting to chip away at it. And the path to getting there seems to be on much firmer ground.
Just this month, 800,000 borrowers have been notified that they qualify for their loans to be forgiven, even after everything the Supreme Court has done to stop it.
This first wave was granted under the IDR adjustment, which, as Adam S. Minsky writes for Forbes, “is designed to remedy historic problems with Income-Driven Repayment plans. IDR plans are supposed to result in eventual loan forgiveness for borrowers after 20 or 25 years in repayment — and sooner than that for borrowers working toward Public Service Loan Forgiveness. But administrative problems and oversight issues resulted in many borrowers getting derailed.”
Not long after, President Biden was able to clear another $130 million in student debt for 7,400 borrowers in Colorado, claiming that they were “lied to, ripped off and saddled with mountains of debt.”
These actions are no small feat, but they are a far cry from the original plan that was proposed. And it seems that President Biden will not be able to come close to eliminating the $400 billion he had originally promised before he’s up for reelection, and even if he wins another term, the odds are against him.
This is because President Biden’s best course of action requires issuing stricter regulations on the way that student loans are paid off, and the legislation required will take some time, with the best-case scenario looking to take about a year.
But this is not the only setback that the administration will face. They will also likely have to battle the Supreme Court once again if lawsuits similar to the first round were to arise, and this is probable.
As Annie Nova reports for CNBC, “If those challenges make it to the Supreme Court again, borrowers can brace for déjà vu.”
This perceived fight for change is characteristic of virtually every presidential administration, because getting in the door is a game based primarily on promise. Though American politics will likely run the issue of gridlock for the foreseeable future, presidential campaigns, and most political campaigns for that matter, always boast big changes that are hard to deliver on.
Despite this, our elections are largely determined by what a candidate says they can do, and not what they will get done. If we continue to let our political decisions be determined by our oversimplifications of our government, we will always end up disappointed.
When it comes to political promises, the most important question that we are not asking is how.
The bottom line is that President Biden’s actions concerning debt relief are a great first step. But the problem is that we treat each new president as the answer to all our problems the moment that they’re sworn in, and this is nowhere near realistic.
We must stop waiting for Superman to come and save us.
It happened with Trump in 2016, and again in 2020. Trump came into the presidential race promising to ‘Make America Great Again’ and instead left the country more divided than ever. We watched Biden and Trump debate in 2020 like gladiators, and barely winced at how sensationalized we had become. But it isn’t too late to change that.
There are a lot of pressing issues in our world, and our democratic process is slow. But our elections are not as transparent as the reality of the situation. The president is important, but he isn’t the whole show.
This only gets better if we stop seeing the president as the answer, and instead, we start asking the right questions.
For an issue like debt relief, it means having conversations about possible setbacks that may arise, and the policies required to move us in the right direction. We have to be informed about the whole journey, not just the finish line. If we’re not asking these vital questions, we will continue to be in the dark about the issues that impact all of us.
Knowledge is power, and it’s up to us to take it.
I am confident that President Biden will continue with his efforts toward debt relief, along with his countless other campaign promises, but there will always be more work to be done. There will be time for praise at the end, but for now, I will not applaud his efforts in trying to make America a better place.
That much is in the job description.
Keep going, Mr. President. The job is not finished.
Janson McNair is an Opinion Writer. Contact him at [email protected]
