Biden Moves To Block Student Debt Victory

Julia Rock, Andrew Perez, Walker Bragman The Daily Poster The president created draconian bankruptcy laws — now his administration appears to be trying to overturn a ruling that helps those bankrupted by student loans.

Despite increasing pressure to fulfill a campaign promise to forgive student debt, President Joe Biden is now going in the opposite direction: His administration has taken an initial step to try to overturn a key legal victory for borrowers, according to court filings reviewed by The Daily Poster.

If the administration wins an appeal, it could bolster a legal precedent against millions of debtors being crushed by bankruptcy laws that Biden infamously helped his finance industry donors sculpt during his four decades in Washington.

On January 14, a federal judge in Biden’s home state of Delaware moved to eliminate nearly $100,000 in student loan debt held by a 35-year-old epileptic man. In response, the Justice Department filed a notice of appeal in the case on behalf of Education Secretary Miguel Cardona.

If Biden officials now follow through with a fully formed appeal, they would not only be aiming to keep this man overwhelmed with debt, but also moving to solidify a legal interpretation that could preclude even the most beleaguered student debtors from getting relief through bankruptcy courts.

“In light of the administration’s commitment to reforming the process for student loan borrowers in bankruptcy, it is both surprising and disappointing to see that they appear to be backtracking,” Dan Zibel, Vice President and Chief Counsel for the National Student Legal Defense Network, a nonprofit that represents students in cases related to education and student debt, told The Daily Poster. “With bipartisan calls to lower the bar for borrowers seeking relief from student loans in bankruptcy, the Department should not be arguing in court to raise that bar.”

The legal maneuver comes more than six years after the Obama administration called on Congress to make it easier for some borrowers to discharge their student loans through bankruptcy.

Over the last four decades, Biden has led the fight against initiatives to reduce student debt. As a senator from Delaware, Biden sculpted the laws that have made it so difficult for Americans to reduce their student debts in bankruptcy court.

On the presidential campaign trail, Biden appeared ready to take a new position on the matter. He promised to make it easier for people to reduce their student debt through bankruptcy proceedings, and to “immediately cancel a minimum of $10,000 of student debt per person.”

But instead of doing so, his Justice Department is moving to further entrench legal precedent against borrowers.

“His Inability To Pay His Student Loan Debt Will Persist”

In the Delaware case, a bankruptcy judge found that Ryan Wolfson, who held nearly $100,000 in student loan debt, faced “undue hardship” due to the debt and eliminated all of it. According to the lawsuit, Wolfson graduated from Penn State in 2010 and struggled to find full-time employment. In 2019, while Wolfson was working full-time driving for Uber, Lyft, and Grubhub, he suffered a seizure while driving and totaled his vehicle.

“The evidence shows that, despite considerable effort, Wolfson has been chronically un- or underemployed since graduating from college; that his sporadic full-time employment has consisted of low-paying gig work or jobs with little prospect of advancement; and that he has avoided living in abject poverty only through significant financial support from his father,” the judge wrote in her opinion. “The record further shows that Wolfson’s career prospects are unlikely to materially improve over time, and thus, his inability to pay his student loan debt will persist.”

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Via https://www.dailyposter.com/biden-moves-to-block-student-debt-victory/