Kennedy said Biden’s plan to forgive student loans gave ‘the appearance of action when nothing was accomplished.’
Democratic presidential candidate Robert Kennedy Jr. took aim at President Biden on Friday for his “failure” to unite Congress, insisting it led to a “predictable” Supreme Court decision to strike down the president’s student loan forgiveness plan.
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“The unfortunate SCOTUS ruling striking down President Biden’s student loan forgiveness program is a predictable result of Biden’s failure to bring Congress together on an issue that is critical to young Americans,” Kennedy said in a statement shared with Fox News Digital.
“President Biden knows his plan won’t survive a legal challenge. His plan has given the appearance of action while accomplishing nothing.
“This is a critical issue for our nation. As president, I will build public support to pressure Congress to lower its partisan positions and enact meaningful relief for the tens of millions of Americans who are drowning in student debt.”
Robert Kennedy expressed his intention to take measures aimed at reducing education costs for students, suggesting that college education in the United States could potentially be made almost free if the government allocated a fraction of the military budget to higher education.
He emphasized that when he was younger, the cost of a college education was significantly lower, allowing students to work their way through college and graduate without debt. Kennedy argued that by diverting even a fraction of the military budget towards higher education, it could become accessible to all, similar to many other countries.
Robert Kennedy highlighted that funding higher education is not an entitlement program but rather an investment in America’s future, comparable to investments in infrastructure and the environment. He advocated for directing resources toward the younger generation rather than spending on prolonged military engagements.
Robert Kennedy’s comments were made shortly after the Supreme Court’s 6-3 ruling, which determined that the White House did not possess the legal authority to provide billions of dollars in federal loan forgiveness to borrowers without explicit authorization from Congress.
The Supreme Court’s decision prevents more than 40 million low- and middle-income borrowers from receiving $10,000 in federal loan forgiveness as proposed by the Biden administration. This represents a significant setback for President Biden, as it contradicts one of his key campaign promises from the 2020 election.
Biden’s plan, announced in August by the White House, aimed to cancel $10,000 of federal student loan debt for certain borrowers earning less than $125,000 per year and provide up to $20,000 in forgiveness for Pell Grant recipients.
While Robert Kennedy expressed concern over the Supreme Court’s ruling, Republican presidential candidates such as Senator Tim Scott and former Vice President Mike Pence applauded the decision made by the court.