Biden made a mess of the border – and with student loans. Trump cleaned up both.
Biden made a mess of the border – and with student loans. Trump cleaned up both. | Opinion President Donald Trump is restoring fiscal responsibility to the student loan program after years of false promises made by Joe Biden.
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Defaulted student loan collection resumes
Federal student loans in default will start being sent to collections on Monday.
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Democrats and their media sycophants often describe President Donald Trump as a chaos agent. I would argue that former President Joe Biden deserves the title even more.
The mess Biden and his administration made of the southern border was self-inflicted, with unprecedented numbers of illegal border crossings. It's no surprise that immigration became a flashpoint in the 2024 presidential election.
And Trump has quickly cleaned up Biden's mishandling of the border.
Yet, while illegal immigration has gotten considerable attention, millions of Americans also are suffering from the chaos Biden created in another realm.
Student loans.
Throughout Biden's four years in office, he repeatedly promised the more than 40 million federal student loan borrowers either outright loan 'cancellation' or payment plans that were greatly reduced or completely zeroed out.
On top of that, Biden kept extending a COVID-related pause on loan payments, which allowed borrowers to stop paying down loans without interest until the fall of 2023.
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Biden essentially fashioned a new entitlement program – on the backs of taxpayers – and made borrowers feel as if they should be unburdened by the debt they knowingly took on.
That's despite major court decisions, including at the U.S. Supreme Court, that threw out Biden's first $400 billion loan forgiveness rollout as unconstitutional.
The losses in court didn't stop Biden from attempting to find workarounds – and continuing to promise future debt cancellation. Yet, those other programs were similarly overturned by the courts or tossed by Biden's Education Department after Trump won reelection.
In the meantime, borrowers have had to deal with the brunt of the confusion.
Now, however, the Trump administration is bringing sanity back to loan repayments with the radical approach that loans should actually be repaid.
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On May 5, Trump's Education Department began collecting on defaulted student loans, which is the first time that's happened since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic five years ago.
"The Biden Administration misled borrowers: the executive branch does not have the constitutional authority to wipe debt away, nor do the loan balances simply disappear," said U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon in a press release. "Hundreds of billions have already been transferred to taxpayers. Going forward, the Department of Education, in conjunction with the Department of Treasury, will shepherd the student loan program responsibly."
That's a relief.
Biden lied to borrowers. Now they have to face reality.
After years of being made to feel their debt wasn't really their problem, many student loan holders are finding themselves in difficult situations that could hurt their credit if they don't address the defaulted debt immediately.
Only 38% of borrowers are current on their student loans, and a record high – 20.5% – of student loan borrowers are seriously delinquent (at least 90 days overdue), a recent TransUnion report shows.
The Trump administration has said that more than 5 million borrowers have not made a payment in more than 360 days, which means they could see their wages garnished.
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As these student loan holders face harsh reality, Republicans in Congress are working on legislation that would cap the amount of loans individuals can take on, as well as the number of available income-driven repayment plans. That is the proper venue for determining the parameter of costly student loans – not the executive branch.
Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris made promises they knew they couldn't keep to borrowers in an effort to buy their votes.
That ploy failed. But the chaos they inflicted on millions of Americans remains.
Ingrid Jacques is a columnist at USA TODAY. Contact her at ijacques@usatoday.com or on X: @Ingrid_Jacques
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