After the SCOTUS shut down his previous attempt, he had another one ready to go. He's doing what he can with what he has at his disposal to do something that progressives have been clamoring for.

If the court strikes this one down, they demonstrate yet again that they are corrupt and illegitimate, and make a more compelling case for expanding the court, and if Biden is smart, he'll just take the next contingency plan off the top of the stack and announce student loan forgiveness again. He can be seen directly fighting against a corrupt conservative institution that is ignoring long established norms, in favor of a demographic that is apathetic because they don't think anyone is fighting for them. If the court lets it stand, Biden gets an accomplishment to run on, and students get relief and a big ol' demonstration that yes, Democrats are actually interested in making their lives better after all.

And the best part is, his own party can't stand in his way. Manchin can't do shit. There's no bill to split into "the bill we pass" and "the bill we kill because it might help people."

Biden is working in direct unobstructed opposition to conservatives here. He's actually persevering instead of giving up forever at the first setback like we've come to expect from Democrats (see minimum wage and the public option). This should be encouraged. This is something the party can sell to its voters instead of just scolding them to take their ineffective medicine.

There are a lot of people who are invested in the collapse of the system for their, their benefactors, or their "teams" benefit.. Who actively want to poo poo and block anything, under the failure of an argument of "Well it doesnt solve EVERYTHING and isnt PERFECT, so theres no point in doing a stop gap solution!"

Because they'd rather no one get anything, than someone other than them get something

It's not enough, but it's at least something

It’s a new payment plan, so applies to new student debt as well.

If I’m reading the StudentAid.gov correctly, the SAVE plan has the following:

• Increase in income exemption to 225% of poverty line (~$66k/yr)
• Undergraduate Loans now are 5% of AGI above exemption limit
• No interest accrued if you make your monthly payment
• After 10 yrs of payment, if principle loan was $12k or less, loan is forgiven. Payment period increases by 1 yr for every $1k over that amount (e.g. for $20k loan, forgiveness after 18 yrs)

This action makes a good headline for re-election purposes.

If you read the article, yes.

Debt forgiveness occurs after 10 years in an income-driven repayment plan (down from 20-25 years). Payments in these plans is now capped at 5% of discretionary income (down from 10%). Unspecified improvements to tracking progress towards loan forgiveness (historically this has been done by the company servicing the loan, and they are beyond awful at it, so this might just be not relying on them for this decision anymore).

If you guys would take the time to read the article you would see that this is not the same debt forgiveness plan as before. The plan cancels the debt remaining for students who have been making payments for 20 years. It's not a one time action but will be available to anyone in the future under the same circumstances.

The forgiveness applies to anyone who enrolls in the new plan, not just existing loans.

New plan is 10 yrs for <= $12k in loans, increasing a year for every $1k additional, so for example, someone who takes out $20k in loans can have the remainder forgiven after 18yrs of payments.

The 20/25 yrs was the old forgiveness plan with lower principal loan and income levels.

Additionally, if you're making your monthly payments, no interest accrued.

39 billion / 804,000 = $48,507.46 on average.

How old and British are you?