“This brings the total debt cancellation my administration has approved to $132 billion for over 3.6 million Americans through various actions,” Biden said in a statement.

  • Omega@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    99
    arrow-down
    4
    ·
    11 months ago

    It kinda sounds like they wouldn’t have been canceled if he hadn’t made the effort. That’s no difference from any other debt forgiveness that’s within his power.

    • thantik@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      13
      arrow-down
      70
      ·
      11 months ago

      This is actually a remnant of his larger plan for cancelling student debt being blocked. So if it should have been done anyhow, we’re now…celebrating presidents for… doing their jobs?

      • Zorque@kbin.social
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        39
        arrow-down
        3
        ·
        11 months ago

        I didn’t see any noisemakers or confetti, where are you seeing celebration? I see acknowledgement and respect, but that’s a far cry from celebration.

        • Melkath@kbin.social
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          9
          arrow-down
          44
          ·
          edit-2
          11 months ago

          No, I’d prefer if a president did his job to begin with and didn’t try to take loud credit for a program that wasn’t his when he finally gets around to doing his job.

          • osarusan@kbin.social
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            40
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            11 months ago

            So… you want the job to get done, but you don’t want anyone to be happy that the job got done?

            • SheeEttin@lemm.ee
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              3
              arrow-down
              27
              ·
              11 months ago

              Yeah, doing the bare minimum shouldn’t be newsworthy. “Hey boss, I showed up on time and got my day’s work done”? He’d probably say “Okay good? You want a cookie or something?”

              • osarusan@kbin.social
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                31
                ·
                11 months ago

                Is forgiving $132 billion in student debt the bare minimum of the job?

                Because if that’s your bar, then Biden is the only president in history who has done the bare minimum. If that’s your standard, I’d think you’d be jumping for joy that a president has finally, in the entire history of the US, done the bare minimum.

              • assassin_aragorn@lemmy.world
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                2
                ·
                11 months ago

                That’s how you end up with things like the rail unions where nobody knows that the administration worked behind the scenes after the legislation to get the workers what they wanted from the companies – and they successfully did that.

          • assassin_aragorn@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            2
            ·
            11 months ago

            So you’re pleased about him working behind the scenes to pressure rail companies into giving the workers what they wanted?

      • SCB@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        28
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        11 months ago

        Bro the mental gymnastics here are astounding.

        Just take the W.

      • APassenger@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        10
        ·
        11 months ago

        I think the idea here is this.

        The Executive Branch has checks and balances over both of the other two branches of government. Part of that is discretion.

        The Executive is not, at all times, bound to the direction provided by Congress (see: lack of enforcement of Marijuana laws). This frustrates many when the wrong decisions are being made. And we love it when the right ones are.

        So someone had stopped performing debt relief as instructed by Congress. Discretion, good or bad. Then Biden directs that the instructions be followed.

        He kind of didn’t have to do that. I’m glad he did and I think it’s the basics of doing his job… But he could have just not done it and reminded entities that running a campaign is expensive or that he’ll be retiring at some point.