Politics and Current
What Black student loan borrowers need to know about Biden’s new “Plan B” for debt relief
The collective plan goals to provide significant relief to Black borrowers who rely more heavily on student debt than white families and who take longer to repay, the Biden-Harris administration says.
President Joe Biden announced his long-awaited Plan B for student loan debt relief on Monday, almost a yr after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down his original program. A White House statement said the new plan would supply “significant relief” to Black and Latino borrowers.
“We know that there are large racial disparities in the student loan program, with students of color more likely to borrow larger amounts and have greater difficulty repaying (their loans),” US Under Secretary of Education James Kvaal told the Grio. Additionally, he said, this system would have a “positive impact on the racial wealth gap.
“Most black borrowers have more than 10 years of debt out of school than they originally borrowed due to higher interest rates than repayments,” Kvaal explained. “We need to bring relief to anyone struggling with their student loans.”
What is Biden’s plan B?
The announcement includes five methods to “fix” the federal student loan program, including allowing debt forgiveness for borrowers who owe more today than after they began repayment, who’ve been in debt for 20 years or longer and who’re experiencing financial hardship.
The Biden-Harris administration says the plan goals to provide significant relief to Black borrowers, who rely more heavily on student debt than white families and who take longer to repay their loans. Combined with existing federal government programs which have forgiven $140 billion in student loan debt for 4 million borrowers, the administration anticipates that greater than 30 million Americans will profit from some type of relief.
Borrowers who owe greater than the unique balance when interest payments begin can be eligible for federal student loan forgiveness, which Kvaal said amounts to about 25 million borrowers. This can be particularly vital for black borrowers who’re more likely to see their balances increase, According to to the Brookings Institute.
As for the debt relief program for vulnerable people, Kvaal said the Biden-Harris administration would consider health care costs or other “unusual family expenses.”
“We have a number of programs aimed at reducing payments or forgiving loans to people who are having trouble repaying their loans for a number of reasons,” he said. “But there are still many people who slip between these programs and struggle to repay their loans. These difficulties are intended to give us the flexibility to help additional people who really need it.”
Other plans announced Monday include the opportunity of debt forgiveness for borrowers who attended institutions that “failed to meet accountability requirements” or “failed to provide sufficient financial value to students.” These are educational institutions where the administration determines the offer of programs that don’t lead to paid work. Some institutions have been punished for being predatory lenders to students. Another principle of Plan B is to make efforts to be certain that existing programs can be found to those that qualify but haven’t yet applied.
When will student debt relief be granted?
While Plan B has been highly anticipated, particularly amongst black borrowers, it would not be implemented for several months. The next phase of the federal rulemaking process can be to allow the general public to provide comments on proposed programs before they change into policy.
The legal framework for the new program relies on the Higher Education Act, unlike the previous program under the HEROES Act, which was created in response to the economic hardships related to the COVID-19 pandemic and was rejected by the Supreme Court in June 2023.
Kvaal told the Grio day by day that the administration’s goal is to “finalize these plans” and “start providing student aid” by the autumn, likely just before Election Day on November 5.
Reactions to Biden’s student debt relief program
Although borrowers can have to wait somewhat longer, student loan advocates are praising Biden’s new plan.
U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., said in an announcement that Plan B is “a powerful testament to borrowers across the country who have fought for economic justice and continued to advocate for student debt despite obstacles from the Supreme Court and Republicans.”
“While we will continue to press for further action that matches the scale of the crisis, this is a historic day and today’s announcement sets us on a path to ensure that more than 30 million borrowers and their families will receive life-changing student debt relief this year,” the statement continued.
Wisdom Cole, national director of the NAACP youth and college chapter, told the Grio that the president’s new plan is “a step in the right direction.”
Cole, one in every of the civil rights group’s lead negotiators in the course of the lawmaking process, said the administration “has hit a really great place.”
“Eliminating runaway interest and people having a balance larger than they originally owed is definitely a key benefit,” Cole said. “Eliminating this will actually enable people to become home owners (and) business owners.”
A student debt relief advocate said Biden canceled the “largest amount of student debt in U.S. history” because advocates and community leaders organized and “made it a priority issue.”
“This is a phenomenal opportunity to invest in our community,” he said.
What’s not in Biden’s student debt relief plan??
Still, Cole acknowledged that the civil rights community had urged the federal government to go further. For example, a proposal to create more debt relief pathways for incarcerated Americans shouldn’t be included in Plan B.
“There are some areas we still need to explore,” he said. “Some people in this situation will never be able to repay this debt. Many of the proposals that we discussed and submitted to the Department of Education gave people a chance to really engage with this economic system.”
Cole said the federal government must proceed to “do more” to address “problems in higher education,” especially how much higher education costs have increased over the many years. “If we really want to solve this problem, we need to start talking about free college. We need to start talking about college affordability,” he said. “It’s a good, ongoing conversation.”
Referring to the November election, Cole said: “Young people want to make sure that their politicians actually keep their words because we have influence.”
He added: “It’s actually an opportunity to see the promises made being kept.”
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The post What Black Borrowers Need to Know About Biden’s New ‘Plan B’ for Debt Forgiveness appeared first on TheGrio.
Politics and Current
Jasmine Crockett blasts Republicans for so-called white “oppression” over anti-DEI bill
On Wednesday, during a passionate speech before the committee, Sen. Jasmine Crockett, R-Texas, chided her Republican colleagues for the content of an anti-DEI bill that calls for eliminating all diversity, equity and inclusion programs and offices within the federal government.
Crockett, a 43-year-old congressional student who has change into a star within the Democratic Party because of her quite a few viral committee appearances, condemned the Dismantle DEI Act of 2024. The bill, H.R. 8706 – first introduced by Republican Vice President-elect J.D. Vance – essentially prohibit all DEI-related activities within the federal government, including all related positions, offices, training, and funding. Strikingly, the bill also prohibits federal employees working in DEI positions from transferring to a different federal position.
During a House Oversight Committee hearing wherein she responded to Rep. Clay Higgins, R-La., who repeatedly called DEI policies “oppression” — seemingly aimed toward white people, as many Republicans suggested — Crockett used the committee’s speaking time to criticize the suggestion that white individuals are oppressed in consequence of efforts to shut racial disparities in sectors resembling business, education, and health.
“You don’t understand the definition of oppression… I would ask you to just Google it,” said Crockett, who moments later read the dictionary definition of the word, adding: “Oppression is long-term cruel or unfair treatment or control, that’s the definition of oppression.” The congresswoman emphasized: “There was no oppression of the white man in this country.”
Referring to the history of chattel slavery and racial segregation within the US, the Texas lawmaker said: “Tell me which white men were dragged from their homes. Tell me which one was dragged across the ocean and that you will go to work. We will steal your wives. We will rape your wives. It didn’t happen. This is oppression.”
Attempting to further explain the importance of DEI, Crockett noted that she is barely the fifty fifth Black woman elected to Congress in its 235-year history, unlike the 1000’s of white men who’ve served on Capitol Hill.
“So if you want to talk about history and pretend it was that long ago, it wasn’t,” Crockett said, citing data showing that corporations perform higher and are more profitable after they are more diversified.
The anti-DEI movement, championed exclusively by Republicans, has led to several lawsuits invalidating federal programs, including debt forgiveness for Black farmers and business loans to Black and other disadvantaged businesses. Many states led by Republican governors have indicated that DEI – especially teaching about slavery and racism – is harmful to students, namely white students. In response, they banned such topics from public classrooms.
Jamarr Brown, executive director of Color of Change PAC, the political arm of the civil rights organization, said Congresswoman Crockett’s statements on DEI were “poignant and necessary.”
While the Dismantling DEI Act actually won’t be passed while Democrats control the Senate and President Joe Biden stays in office, it signals what may very well be a priority for Republicans next yr, as outlined within the pro-Trump “Project 2025” political manifesto “.
“According to Project 2025, diversity, equity and inclusion is synonymous with ‘White lives don’t matter,’” Brown noted. “Now more than ever, we at Color Of Change PAC, as well as advocates and activists across the country, must work to protect Black people and other people of color from harm resulting from anti-DEI attacks.”
Brown continued, “Civil rights protections have helped reduce mortgage discrimination, increase the number of Black physicians to counter problems such as Black maternal mortality, and provide financing for Black-owned businesses.”
He added: “Our country thrives and everyone benefits when diversity, equality and inclusion are valued rather than stifled.”
Politics and Current
Why is Trump delaying signing the ethics agreement?
The campaign’s legal department reports that President-elect Donald Trump is stalling the presidential transition process by refusing to sign an ethics pledge that is legally required of each sitting president
Under the Presidential Transition Act, Trump and his transition team must sign a document ensuring he avoids any conflicts of interest once he takes office. Only after the document is signed and sent to the General Services Administration (GSA) can the incoming administration gain access to federal agencies.
The transition, which President Joe Biden has promised will likely be “orderly and peaceful,” sets the tone for the Trump-Vance administration’s approach to transparency, accountability and earning the trust of Americans, all of that are seen as essential to making sure the administration fulfills its responsibilities to the U.S. people mean .
The reasons for withholding Trump’s documents are unknown, but some speculate it has to do along with his latest financial disclosure reports and for one reason particularly. Many of his holdings might be considered conflict of interest red flags, equivalent to his latest cryptocurrency business, a majority stake in his social media platform Truth Social, real estate, books and licensing deals.
It’s not only the GSA that the president-elect is avoiding. According to , Trump also refused to make use of the State Department’s secure phone lines and interpreters and kept away from using the FBI’s security clearance system. That’s why House Democrats issued latest laws on November 19 requiring Executive Office employees to have FBI security clearances. If not, Congress will likely be warned.
Democratic lawmakers and powerful Trump opponents like Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) are baffled by his transition team’s refusal to sign an ethics agreement.
“Donald Trump and his transition team are already breaking the law. I would know because I wrote the law myself,” Warren wrote in X on November 11. “Future presidents are obliged to prevent conflicts of interest and sign an ethics agreement. This is what illegal corruption looks like.”
Skepticism towards the bill, presented by Representatives Don Beyer (D-VA) and Ted Lieu (D-CA)persists. The upcoming GOP-controlled Congress is seemingly leaning toward Trump. Once back in office, Trump will give you the chance to issue security clearances to anyone he wants, no matter the FBI’s objections or whether the person faces legal charges. This latest situation involves two of Trump’s Cabinet picks – Matt Gaetz as attorney general and Pete Hegseth as defense secretary, each of whom have faced allegations of sexual misconduct.
Politics and Current
Social media reacts to video of Susan Smith’s tearful plea for parole 30 years after she killed her two sons and blamed their disappearance on a black man
Parole was denied Wednesday for notorious South Carolina mother Susan Smith, who drowned her two young children after initially claiming a black man had kidnapped them.
“I wish I could take it back, I really do,” Smith, now 53, said. “I didn’t lie to get away with it. … I used to be just afraid. I didn’t know the way to tell the individuals who loved them that they might never see them again.
Smith said she found peace because of her Christian faith. God is a vital part of her life testified on Wednesday, “and I know he has forgiven me.”
It was her first appearance before the state parole board, which voted unanimously to keep her in prison for the remaining of her life. After serving 30 years, Smith is eligible for parole every two years.
“I know what I did was terrible,” she said in her testimony given via Zoom. “And I would give anything if I could go back and change it.”
“I love Michael and Alex with all my heart,” she said openly, crying and wiping away tears.
The disappearance of 3-year-old Michael and 14-month-old Alex made national headlines after their mother told the chilling story of how a black man stopped her automotive and took her children. She appeared incessantly on television, playing every bit the role of a distraught mother, and the search for her boys lasted nine grueling days.
Susan Smith, a South Carolina woman who pleaded guilty to killing her 3-year-old and 14-month-old sons in 1994, speaks at her parole hearing.
Smith initially lied to police, saying that a black man had kidnapped her and kidnapped her sons. pic.twitter.com/oppN49EvWj
— ABC News Live (@ABCNewsLive) November 20, 2024
It was then that Susan Smith, questioned by police who began to doubt her story, truthfully confessed what really happened on October 25, 1994.
Smith, then 23, strapped her sons into their automotive seats and drove the automotive into a lake near her home in Union, South Carolina.
Smith’s pleas fell on the ears of not only the parole board but in addition many on social media. As videos of her interrogation began circulating online, a whole bunch of comments condemned the mother for not seeming sufficiently remorseful about her actions.
“☠️MONSTERS should be kept in CAGES☠️”, one person wrote on Xformerly Twitter.
Another added: “I remember it when it happened. She claimed that her children were kidnapped by black people. And people believed her, unfortunately. She should be sentenced to death. He must remain behind bars until the very end.”
“I’m sure her children, strapped in their automotive seats, screamed and cried as they drowned in their own mother’s hands for her lustful pleasures. Shameful,” – wrote one other commentator.
Sixteenth Judicial District Solicitor Kevin Brackett recalled pulling Susan Smith’s automotive out of the water with her children inside. She added that these crimes shocked not only the family but your complete country.
“On behalf of the community I now represent, I do not believe she should ever be released from prison until the last living person who remembers Michael and Alex dies, and that will not happen in her lifetime. She should never have been released,” Brackett said Wednesday.
Defense lawyer Susan Smith argued that she planned to die with her sons, but jumped out of the automotive on the last minute.
Lead prosecutor Tommy Pope noted that Smith was not wet or injured when she ran for help after the automotive disappeared beneath the lake.
“God is an important part of my life and I know he has forgiven me… I just ask that you show the same kind of mercy.”
Killer mother Susan Smith applies for release 30 years after drowning her two young sons at her first parole hearing. The Parole Board unanimously rejected… pic.twitter.com/0jR88Mkuzo
— Fox News (@FoxNews) November 20, 2024
“Susan’s focus was always on Susan,” said Pope, who presented evidence during Smith’s murder trial that she was distraught over her breakup with one other man. Prosecutors say the connection ended because Smith had children.
“Susan made a terrible, terrible decision, choosing a man over her family,” Pope said. “If she could have put David in the car, he would have been there too.”
David Smith, Michael and Alexander’s father, who was captured entering the constructing, told the board that his ex-wife had never shown any remorse for their murder.
David Smith has just arrived at Susan Smith’s parole hearing.
He is her ex-husband and the daddy of the boys she murdered.
He wanted the death penalty, and now 30 years later he must face it again when it asks the South Carolina Parole Board to release her. pic.twitter.com/2WdqXjwQxM— Brian Entin (@BrianEntin) November 20, 2024
“It wasn’t a tragic mistake. (…) She deliberately wanted to end their lives,” he said.
David Smith testified that his grief over the loss of his sons “came close to taking my own life.”
His current wife, Tiffany Smith, says there are still days when her husband cannot get out of bed because of the pain.
“Michael and Alex didn’t get a chance at life,” she said. “They were given the death penalty.”
He said his ex-wife served just 15 years for each child. “It’s just not enough.”
Susan Smith’s attorney, Tommy Thomas, told the parole board his client’s case shows “the dangers of untreated mental health.” He said Susan Smith was not diagnosed with depression after the birth of her second child.
Her stepfather testified that he had sexually abused her for years.
Susan Smith was not a model prisoner. She was convicted multiple times, once for sex with a prison officer and one other time for drug possession. She was also threatened with punishment for providing documents with her ex-husband’s contact details.
Her lawyer said that if she was released on parole, she would live with her brother.
David Smith said if his wife applied for parole again, he could be there for the sake of his sons.
(*30*) he told the board.
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