Protesters in favor of student loan relief gathered outside the Supreme Court on Tuesday morning, demanding that the top jurists side with President Biden as they hear two cases challenging his signature student loan debt relief policy.
Biden’s relief program looks to cancel $10,000 of student debt for low- to middle-income borrowers and $20,000 for Pell Grant recipients, but the legal challenges have put the program on hold while the Supreme Court hears the arguments for the cases that jeopardize it.
Activists who showed up ahead of oral arguments told Cheddar that Americans should not have to be burdened with so much student debt.
"I went to college as a first generation college student. My FAFSA said we had zero expected family contribution," said Kristin McGuire, executive director of the advocacy group Young Invincibles. "I borrowed $20,000 to finance my college education, and I currently owe over $55,000."
“We're almost 20 years later, and my debt has doubled. And Americans should not have to go through that,” McGuire continued.
Democratic Rep. Ayanna Pressley (Mass. District 7) also made an appearance outside the Supreme Court.
"The people demand and deserve student debt cancellation," Pressley told the crowd. "Student debt cancellation will change and save lives."
Pressley said that Republican officials are “disconnected from the hardship of everyday folks who are burdened by this debt” and “chose obstruction.”
But, Republicans have called Biden’s plan fiscally irresponsible.
“Our nation is facing a staggering $31 trillion worth of debt and we have closed in on the debt ceiling, yet the Biden administration is still attempting to cancel millions of dollars in student loans,” Senator Rick Scott of Florida has said. “The reality is, a blanket forgiveness of student loans only benefits a small percentage of the population at the expense of millions of other hard working Americans."
The Court’s decisions won’t be released until the early summer, but 26 million people have already applied for the program, with 16 million having already been approved.
Large swaths of Puerto Rico lost power Wednesday, the second major service interruption in less than two weeks. That makes efforts to recover from Hurricane Maria even harder, says Kelly Macias, a staff writer at the Daily Kos. Thousands of people on the island have been in the dark since the storm hit in September.
In light of Facebook's data scandal, other tech companies should give users a cut of the money they made off of their information, says Brittany Kaiser, a former director of business development at data company Cambridge Analytica.
Brittany Kaiser, a former executive at the company that gained access to data on millions of Facebook users, said that the estimate of 87 million people affected is far less than the reality.
The Fox News primetime host remains unscathed even after multiple controversies, including the revelation on Monday that he sought legal advice from President Donald Trump's personal lawyer, Michael Cohen. "He pretty much plays by his own rules," says Michael Calderone, Politico's senior media reporter.
The back and forth between UN Ambassador Nikki Haley and President Trump's economic adviser Larry Kudlow over sanctions on Russia just reflects a major difference of opinion within the White House and "that she's a little more hawkish on issues in terms of foreign policy," says Jon Miller, CRTV's White House correspondent.
Nearly half the films debuting this year were directed by women, says Pete Torres, the festival's COO. Promoting women in the film industry "always has been part of our mission," he told Cheddar Wednesday.
Cohen has a hand in many of President Trump's dealings, from the Stormy Daniels case to potential business in Russia, says political consultant Rick Wilson. That could all be used to either flip him against Trump or put him behind bars.
Reporters at the New York Times and the New Yorker magazine shared the prize for public service journalism for their reporting on Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein, which ultimately sparked the #MeToo movement.
The FBI's raid of Cohen's office and hotel wasn't "appropriate," says RNC Spokeswoman Kayleigh McEnany. After McEnany's interview with Cheddar, a New York City court revealed that one of Cohen's most recent legal clients includes Fox News prime time host Sean Hannity.
Excerpts from Comey's tell-all book, "A Higher Loyalty", and his interview with ABC over the weekend reveal controversial but insubstantial details about President Trump. This could be "engineered to irk his [former] boss," says Asawin Suebsaeng, White House Reporter, The Daily Beast.
