Biden announces student loan forgiveness for 153,000 borrowers

WASHINGTON (NEXSTAR) - Check your email: On Wednesday President Biden sent messages to around 153,000 people to let them know their student loans are forgiven. "While a college degree is still a ticket to a better life, that ticket is too expensive," Biden said. 

The borrowers included in this round of forgiveness qualified under the Biden administration's new SAVE plan. They all borrowed $12,000 or less and have been repaying the loans for at least a decade. 

"Folks I'm happy to have been able to forgive these loans because when we realize and relieve Americans of their student debt, they're free to chase their dreams,"Biden said. 

Jon Donenberg is the deputy director of the White House National Economic Council. He says the SAVE plan is designed to help those who need it most. 

"The size of the debt burden is increasingly crushing a generation of Americans who are struggling to buy homes, to start families and to really start to build that future," Donenberg said. 

This all comes after the Supreme Court blocked the Biden administration's original more expansive, forgiveness plan. Since then, the president has used several executive actions to cancel student loan debt. His team says so far that's wiped out nearly $140 billion in debt for about 3.9 million people. 

"We're not giving up. The President is not giving up," Donenberg said. "People really deserve that relief." 

Many Republicans disagree. On social media site X, Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) called it a "move that circumvents the Supreme Court's authority and harms American taxpayers."

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.)  posted "There is no such thing as student loan "forgiveness." President Biden is simply transferring the debt to make you and your kids pay back student loans that you never took out." 

But the Biden administration says there's more to come. Next week they plan to send emails to people who are eligible for loan forgiveness but haven't signed up yet.