About 22 million people have applied for student loan assistance

President Joe Biden said nearly 22 million people have applied for federal student loan aid in the week since it became available online. That’s more than half of the total number estimated by the White House to be eligible for the program.

Speaking at the University of Delaware, one of the institutions of higher education with a historically African-American student population where most students receive federal Pell Grants for tuition, Biden noted the impressive statistics for the first week of applications. He officially unveiled the online application site last Monday.

Biden’s plan calls for $10,000 in federal student debt forgiveness for those whose income does not exceed $125,000 a year or for households with incomes less than $250,000 a year.

Recipients of federal Pell grants can expect another $10,000 in forgiveness. The plan is designed to make 20 million people eligible for full federal student debt forgiveness.

Biden emphasized the ease of applying, which doesn’t require downloading any forms or creating an account.

“It takes less than five minutes,” the president noted.

According to the president, the “vast majority” of applicants can do it from their phones.

Biden lashed out at Republicans who criticized his program to help student loan recipients.

“Their outrage is wrong and hypocritical,” he said.

Biden said he did not want to hear criticism from “officials representing MAGA-Republicans” who have been forgiven multimillion-dollar debts and loans from the pandemic. He mentioned House members Vern Buchanan and Marjorie Taylor Green, who had their loans forgiven, and Senator Ted Cruz, who called some student loan recipients “bums.”

“Who the hell do they think they are?” – Biden asked.

Shortly after Biden’s speech, Reuters reported that an appeals court temporarily blocked the president’s plan to cancel student loans. This came a day after a district judge in Missouri dismissed a lawsuit filed by six Republican states challenging the White House’s initiative to write off student loans.

The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals granted the states’ emergency petition Friday to freeze the loan write-off plan until the court rules on their request for a longer-term injunction for the duration of the appeal.