U.S. President Joe Biden plans to announce on Wednesday that his administration has approved an additional $9 billion in student debt relief for 125,000 borrowers, the White House said.

Biden has said he will pursue new measures to provide student loan relief to Americans after the Supreme Court blocked his plan to cancel hundreds of billions of dollars in debt.

The president’s announcement, planned for 1 p.m. EDT at the White House, will bring the total approved debt cancellation by the Biden administration to $127 billion for nearly 3.6 million Americans, the White House said.

      • jeffw@lemmy.worldM
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        1 year ago

        I actually think 50-60 would be ideal. Obama, in his mid-40s, was a relative political newcomer in 2008 (compared to other candidates, at least, not like Trump-style) and he made many missteps as a result. The ACA, for example, could have been far more broad. They didn’t need massive moderate support.

        Of course, some people enter politics pretty young. By the time Maxwell Frost hits 45, for example, he might have 20 years in federal politics. It’s rare that we find people with so much experience at that age though.

        • assassin_aragorn@lemmy.world
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          I think the level of Republican stonewalling was historic for Obama, so to some degree it would’ve happened anyway, but I think he would’ve wisened up faster if he had more experience. It’s a double edged sword.

        • SCB@lemmy.world
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          The ACA, for example, could have been far more broad. They didn’t need massive moderate support.

          The ACA passed by one vote after they stripped it down to make it more appealing.

          On December 23, the Senate voted 60–39 to end debate on the bill: a cloture vote to end the filibuster.[182] The bill then passed, also 60–39, on December 24, 2009, with all Democrats and two independents voting for it, and all Republicans against (except Jim Bunning, who did not vote).[

        • thallamabond@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          The aca was much more broad, it initially included a single player option, but that was excluded by Joe Lieberman.

          He threatened to kill the whole thing if single payer was included.

          Lieberman then quit the Democratic party and now he’s founding chairman of No Labels

      • uis@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        In 2000 Putin was between 40 and 50. Depends on what is ideal for you. Between 18 and 30 would be ideal.

        • I_Fart_Glitter@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          I don’t think an 18 year old president is a good idea. Bold of me to say, I know.

          Also, I don’t think Putin’s age was the problem when he took office the first time… it was that he is Putin.

      • Wrench@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Yes, we need someone even older to stave off the most common complaint about Biden running for reelection

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          1 year ago

          Is the complaint legitimate? Especially hard to make the case for Sanders considering how much of a firebrand he is. Not going to get Sleepy Joe memes out of that.

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        1 year ago

        We need the house and the senate with a comfortable majority. Sanders as president without those critical conditions being met would make little difference.

      • Fedizen@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        we need bernard sanders brain inside a younger person. Matt Gaetz isn’t using his? maybe some kind of transplant or brain swap device is in order.

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          You aren’t actually serious right?

          Cornell has bumbled his micro campaign into irrelevance within weeks of it starting. He’s shown no political savvy. He has run for and won no prior office. He’d be a disaster.

          Fetterman, or literally any progressive who has won a federal election is a better option.

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            Dude, if Fetterman ran I’d vote for him in an instant. Doubly so if he took the oath of office in shorts and a hoodie

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              1 year ago

              You shouldn’t, He just entered federal Politics. He needs experience and more importantly he needs to be stabilize his Health before he would even dream of going to the next level.

                • phillaholic@lemm.ee
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                  He just needs more experience. He didn’t debate well either. Oz was just such a dumb candidate.

                  • TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world
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                    1 year ago

                    Agree to disagree. I think he’d do fine. He’ll debate better than Biden. He’s got a record of victory against big names.

                    Thats plenty. We could have elected a boot in 2020 to oust Trump. We basically elected weekend at bernies Biden. But its fine. Whatever it takes.

                    And honestly, I’d be shocked if there are even debates. If Trump doesn’t’ show up for primary debates, he doesn’t deserve the privileged and airtime that general debates would offer.

          • goldenlocks@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            Not true at all, still polling at 5% and will get at least that in the general.

            Not surprised someone who thinks a walking corpse like Fetterman is a better option would be so ignorant.

            • Kcs8v6@lemmy.world
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              Damn man, he didn’t say you were stupid, he just said he disagreed with you. Don’t need to sling mud for a different opinion.

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                1 year ago

                He did insult someone who has likely accomplished 1000x more with his life, Dr. West. So no, I’m not the one slinging mud here.

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                  Someone saying a public figure with little experience in politics is doing poorly at their third party run is not mudslinging.

                  This is one of the many reasons that third parties aren’t taken seriously. If party members clutch their pearls at critical observations of their candidate, they don’t stand a chance in hell.

                  Besides, Greens are anti science sensationalists. Or have they admitted fault yet on being anti nuclear, anti GMO, ambivalent on vaccines, and entertaining pseudoscience like wifi causing cancer? I don’t need Republican lite, grifting populists.

                  • goldenlocks@lemmy.world
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                    Except he does have political experience and had been involved in many campaigns. You just won’t bother to learn or even read his campaign website.

                    The greens change like any other party depending on leadership. Go read their website and see that you’re mistaken on those views. Many have changed over time since I first read them over ten years ago.

          • commie@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            I’m voting for cornel west because I like what he says, not what people say about him. but the people talking shit on him cement my belief he’s the right guy.

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                People who say this are so fuckin bougie. Poor people can’t afford to throw away their votes, but middle class people fuck over the poor by doing so all the time.

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                    1 year ago

                    Oh wow, an insult from Lenny’s biggest troll. All done making excuses for climate change, I guess?

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                  Poor people don’t really vote in the first place. And when they do they vote for rich people like those in the Democratic or Republican party.

                  • jeffw@lemmy.worldM
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                    Good way to agree that you’re an entitled dude lol. I know people who vote because their life depends on the GOP not further dismantling the welfare state

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      There always has been but people are afraid to vote 3rd party because of the oligarchy’s brainwashing

      • player2@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        It’s not brainwashing when the voting system is specifically set up to give an advantage to the dominant parties and to suppress every minority party. There are valid reasons to be skeptical that a 3rd party could ever win without a reformed voting system.

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          They also can’t win if everybody says “don’t vote for them because they can’t win” so I will carry on voting for them and spreading the word that we all should.

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            You’d be a lot better off voting for majority party candidates that want to enact ranked-choice voting.

            Until that happens, unfortunately the reality is that third parties are going to remain on the margins in the US.

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                And it’s always settled to two major parties, in spite of that. The fact that we’ve had several parties over the country’s history but it almost always comes down to two major parties should tell you something.

                Fortunately, there may be an opening soon, with Republicans in disarray.

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            They can’t win because they don’t even play the game correctly. You can’t just get up and give grand speeches about radically different ideas, with little to no strategy or evidence to back it up and expect to jump into literally the most powerful job in the world. It’s utter nonsense. Unless you’re a Billionaire that wants to buy your way in.

            • assassin_aragorn@lemmy.world
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              You can tell none of the third parties are serious because all their attention goes to the presidency.

              They have no consideration for what would happen if they actually won. No representatives in the House, no senators, no state governors even. They’d be lame ducks the instant they were sworn in.

              They should be targeting Congressional seats and state governorships. Instead, they’re just grifting money.

              • commie@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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                They’d be lame ducks the instant they were sworn in.

                Congress spent the last century concentrating power in the executive. I think you’d be surprised what a motivated individual could accomplish.

                • assassin_aragorn@lemmy.world
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                  You’re underestimating Congress. It still plays a lot of roles, especially the Senate. It just isn’t obvious because the president’s party typically has control at the beginning of their terms.

                  This would probably work for Greens except that they don’t have people running for those positions.

                  • commie@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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                    what’s the senate going to do? remove them? not if the senators are jailed on corruption and war crime charges.

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        It’s not fear. Third parties simply do not work with our system. If you want third parties to succeed, then we need to

        • Get rid of the electoral college
        • Ranked Choice Voting everywhere
      • agent_flounder
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        It’s not that simple. Several factors come into play.

        The biggest systemic issues are the first past the post voting system and the electoral college (for president).

        People who have even a simplistic understanding of how the system works and the track record for third parties know the odds are low. Those who are pragmatic will vote for Dem or Rep. In the current polarized political climate people are less likely to take a chance with a third party vote.

        Also, the press mostly ignores candidates of other parties. So they aren’t as well known and thus can’t get popular enough to get traction.

        If you really want more parties to have a chance, push for alternate voting systems like ranked choice, cumulative, etc.

        This chart from fairvote.org compares a number of different systems based on their research.

      • nocturne213@lemm.ee
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        In 2016 I voted for Gary Johnson because I thought there was really no way anyone would vote for the other two.

        • phillaholic@lemm.ee
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          Gary Johnson is a fool who didn’t even act like he was seriously running for President. It looked like he drew the short straw.

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              I have no idea what elements of libertarianism you like, nor why a ex-Republican for that roll in your mind, but he would have been a bad Republican, but not Trump. He had no chance so it really didn’t matter

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        Amen. Proud to support Dr. Cornel West and the Green party in 2024!

        These people are really brainwashed, either that or it’s DNC bots downvoting you