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  • February 18, 2025
Biden to cancel even more student debt, prioritize Ukraine and Gaza in final weeks: chief of staff

Biden to cancel even more student debt, prioritize Ukraine and Gaza in final weeks: chief of staff

One day after the Democrats furious at his absence on the world stage and within his own governmentOutgoing President Biden has announced that he will roll out “more student debt forgiveness,” work toward “a ceasefire in Gaza with the released hostages” and send further military aid to Ukraine, according to an internal memo from the White House.

The memo from Biden’s chief of staff Jeff Zients, addressed to all White House staff, outlined the 46th president’s foreign and domestic priorities for his remaining 42-day “sprint” before President-elect Donald Trump takes office. of the note obtained by The Post shows.

In addition to addressing foreign conflicts that broke out on his watch, the 82-year-old commander in chief touts his $2,000 drug limit for some Medicare beneficiaries, as well as “more student loan forgiveness for civil servants and other borrowers,” ostensibly to lower costs for Americans.

President Biden at the Tribal Nations Summit at the Department of the Interior in Washington, DC, December 9, 2024. REUTERS

Biden has already wiped out more than $175 billion in loans for millions of student borrowers as part of a 2020 campaign promise to cancel their debt.

Although some of it was blocked by federal courts, Jason Furman, the former chairman of President Barack Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers, said criticizes the massive debt cancellation for “pouring roughly half a trillion dollars of gasoline on the inflation fire” that hit a 40-year high in 2022.

The next year the U.S. Supreme Court arrived knocked down Called unconstitutional is a move by Biden’s Department of Education to use a 2003 law intended for Iraq War veterans to cancel $430 billion in student loans.

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The president switched in late 2023 and into 2024 to use the Higher Education Act of 1965 and other federal regulations to have the department cleared well over half a billion dollars with debt for other borrowers, including those who have been struggling to pay off their loans for more than a decade and federal employees.

Almost all those have now been discontinued rulings of lower courts — but the Biden administration could still forgive another $100 billion in loan payments to individuals it believes have an 80% chance of defaulting, using a “predictive assessment based on existing borrower data.”

In all, the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget predicted that the incoming Trump administration would have a future can save up to $550 billion by undoing Biden’s various student debt forgiveness schemes.

Relatives and supporters of Israelis held hostage in Gaza since the October 7 attacks raise signs calling on the US to intervene for their release. AFP via Getty Images

On foreign policy, Zients said Biden remains “embroiled” in talks to release Israeli and American hostages held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip — who have been held in captivity for more than a year since the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre.

“The President is currently engaged in a new effort with Turkey, Egypt, Qatar, Israel and others to reach a ceasefire in Gaza that will free the hostages,” the memo reads – despite reports indicating that it Trump transition team added: “new momentum” in the negotiations and has already sent envoys to Israel and Qatar.

Biden’s support for Israel in its war against Hamas alienated some left-wing members of the Democratic coalition, who voted against their party’s candidate in their primaries earlier this year and smeared him as ‘Genocide Joe’ for refusing to stop sending munitions or agreed to divest. from the Jewish state.

Airmen from the 436th Aerial Port Squadron use a forklift to move 155 mm (6 in) grenades eventually headed to Ukraine, April 29, 2022, at Dover Air Force Base, Del. AP

On Ukraine, Zients added that Biden will “do more” to get the country “in the best position possible” — and that he will provide “additional artillery rounds, air defenses and other critical capabilities.”

But with the fall of the regime of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad last weekend, Trump has indicated that Russia’s position is weakening and that President Vladimir Putin may be willing to negotiate peace with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Other parts of the memo talked about plans to provide more “high-speed internet funding to states,” push Senate Democrats to push through his judicial nominees, and work with Congress to pass a government shutdown before to avoid the end of the year.

“And there is so much more we are working on,” Zients’ memo concluded. “We have announcements on everything from climate to conservation to AI and more.”