President Joe Biden criticized Republicans and vowed to take additional action to extend relief to borrowers after the Supreme Court ruled his student loan debt program unconstitutional.
The court voted 6-3 in opposition to the president's plan, which would forgive an estimated $400 billion in student loans. The decision comes ahead of the end of a three-year pause on student loan payments due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Six Republican states sued the administration over the program, and in a statement responding to Friday's ruling, Biden accused Republicans of hypocrisy for backing pandemic loan forgiveness for businesses while opposing relief for student borrowers.
"The hypocrisy of Republican elected officials is stunning. They had no problem with billions in pandemic-related loans to businesses — including hundreds of thousands and in some cases millions of dollars for their own businesses," he wrote. "And those loans were forgiven. But when it came to providing relief to millions of hard-working Americans, they did everything in their power to stop it."
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