Summary

The Biden administration has moved to forgive $4.7 billion in U.S. loans to Ukraine as part of a $9.4 billion loan package authorized by Congress in April to support Ukraine’s government during its war with Russia.

State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller confirmed the decision, which Congress could still block.

The Senate is set to vote on a disapproval motion introduced by Senator Rand Paul, though bipartisan support for Ukraine remains strong.

President Biden is expediting aid ahead of his term’s end, amid concerns President-elect Trump may restrict future support.

  • Skiluros@sh.itjust.works
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    21 days ago

    The Senate is due to vote later on Wednesday on a motion of disapproval of loan forgiveness for Ukraine put forward by Republican Senator Rand Paul, a frequent critic of U.S. support for Ukraine.

    Rand Paul? Is this the fellow who advocated for taking horse medication against COVID?

    • chuckleslord@lemmy.world
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      21 days ago

      … really? They’re still being fought in the courts. Like, what the fuck commentary is this? “What about the thing you’ve been trying to do this whole time?” Yeah, they’re still doing that.

      • bitwolf@sh.itjust.works
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        20 days ago

        I see that they are fighting for PSLF forgiveness in courts.

        Not the broad 20k forgiveness for all borrowers.

        Do you have information otherwise? I’m interested in any discourse I may have missed on the matter.

          • Flocklesscrow@lemm.ee
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            20 days ago

            Why didn’t Biden simply stack the Supreme Court with more justices? The conservative court presided by John Roberts has also shown zero compunctions for undermining the cornerstones of American legality. So why is the Biden admin playing along? Why are they constantly feigning weakness at every opportunity to be strong? Are they weak or simply apathetic?

            Biden has been granted Kingly powers and impunity. He has done nothing with them. Etiquette and decorum are window dressing of the past. He is failing America at this most critical juncture, and it’s 100% incumbent on citizens to call him out for this level of capitulation.

            • Glemek@lemmy.world
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              20 days ago

              I don’t know that biden truly had the ability to stack the court, any justice he wanted to add would have to get through the senate. Which was only very narrowly held by the dems, and a pretty minimal amount of defections would have scuttled the plan entirely while also having broken the taboo. I don’t actually trust biden either, so the world in which biden destroys the democratic norms and seizes power in that way also is a really bad situation.

    • Batman@lemmy.world
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      21 days ago

      Lol when this started I was a fine candidate for forgiveness. Now my income has increased and they lowered the bar so I’m disqualified. Really glad I’m on this side but it will be 5 years before I can pay off what would have been forgiven. The ceiling is a joke anywhere that isn’t a rural environment.

      • Eugene V. Debs' Ghost@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        20 days ago

        Means testing is just a poverty trap. My family personally earned a bit more money and the state of California now said “Cool, you no longer qualify for free health insurance, you gotta pay.”

        And while it’s not a lot, its a few dollars a month, it has less options. Not even medical transportation in the rural area we live in.

  • Randomgal@lemmy.ca
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    20 days ago

    But American students? Fuck em. Raise their interest to finance this.

  • Eugene V. Debs' Ghost@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    20 days ago

    Does anyone know why Biden has the authority to do this? It seems more up to Congress to decide if a debt is forgiven overnight. “Pen and the Purse” is what my social studies said every class.

  • FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world
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    21 days ago

    Infuriating.

    US borrowers can’t get their loans forgiven, but Biden’s going to be Ukraine’s personal Santa Claus for the next month and half, even though we’ve already allocated hundreds of billions to their war.

        • theprogressivist @lemmy.world
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          21 days ago

          You’ve only been on this platform for 2 weeks, and your entire post history is some of the worst takes I’ve seen. Good job.

            • ThotIWasSomebody@lemmy.world
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              21 days ago

              To own the libs right? That’s what you think you are doing here? I’m sorry to have to inform you that you being here is a direct result of you poking your head out of your own echo chamber that loves to stir up controversy with Ignorant bullshit like this.

            • BetaBlake@lemmy.world
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              20 days ago

              The most 16 year old way to go about life, you arent accomplishing anything by constantly being wrong because no one is buying it.

              Happy people don’t do the things you do, maybe some self-reflection is due.

        • ThotIWasSomebody@lemmy.world
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          21 days ago

          I appreciate the moderation but I would much rather their statements stand for the idiotic ramblings that they are.

          • surph_ninja@lemmy.world
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            21 days ago

            They don’t want to risk people looking up to verify what I’ve said, and finding out Biden’s been fucking with them more than they knew.

      • chilicheeselies@lemmy.world
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        21 days ago

        Dude this just isnt the way. Whether you like it or not a lot of people feel this way, and it permeates a lot of things. “Im suffering so why am i last?”. I agree that these are two different issues but lets stop calling people stupid for not understanding.

        • Tyfud@lemmy.world
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          21 days ago

          That was a fine approach the first time around. But after almost a decade of GOP fuckery and apologists trying to blur the lines between the two parties, I’m with the guy calling out how fucking stupid it is to not call that jackass out for being a fucking idiot for trying to hide the fact that the GOP, and only the GOP, blocked all of the student debt relief that Biden tried to get through.

          The time for games is over.

          Adults are adults and responsible for their choices. Anyone that voted Trump or supports the GOP are traitors to democracy, and should not be handled with kid gloves anymore.

          • Diva (she/her)@lemmy.ml
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            21 days ago

            Maybe the democrats should do less warmongering if they want people to tell them apart. This last election they got endorsed by the fucking Cheneys.

            Imagine being president and being like ‘oh well the senate parliamentarian (that my own party appointed) said no’

        • AA5B@lemmy.world
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          20 days ago

          I kind of agree with calling people stupid. So much of the reasons people give for disliking what Biden has accomplished are straight up lack of awareness or misinformation. If someone makes a choice without awareness, possibly intentionally unaware, or is unable to break out of a misinformation rut, what do you call it?

          I really don’t think most Republicans are as malicious, spiteful, racist, or corrupt as the high profile Republican leaders, nor that they intentionally vote for that: they’re just being stupid

          The last few years of fact checking, reality checking, reasoned debate has gone nowhere. What do you call it when someone refuses to look outside their preexisting beliefs, regardless of how much proof? Maybe calling them in it will get their attention. Maybe stooping to their level is the only thing that will

    • sensiblepuffin@lemmy.world
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      21 days ago

      Biden’s forgiven the loans that he has the power to forgive. Judges and the House have blocked most of his loan forgiveness moves.

      If we can allocate billions of dollars to Israel, we can certainly forgive some of Ukraine’s loans.

    • TachyonTele@lemm.ee
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      21 days ago

      You must get angry a lot, not understanding how so much of the world works.

      • FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world
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        21 days ago

        I feel like we’ve seen plenty of historical examples of how this all works by now, from Rumsfeld shaking Hussein’s hand in 1983 when the US was going into debt to fund their war, and then throughout the 90’s when we went further into debt to fund Clinton’s “peacekeeping” actions (which actually were wars) and Bush I’s wars, and then we got lied into war again by Bush II and spent trillions on that, tacking on further wars in Syria and elsewhere, but you all are content to ignore history because your preferred news network tells you to. Going off of history, it’s only a matter of time before we find out we were lied to about Ukraine or the hundreds of billions we were kind enough to take out on credit in order to gift them was largely misused.

        And as much as you care about democracy, you don’t have any empathy whatsoever for the people that US Banks and the Pharma industry are at war with, our own citizens.

        • ThotIWasSomebody@lemmy.world
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          21 days ago

          And yet we keep electing the people that let it happen. You can’t blame capitalism alone. The citizenship is letting it happen. This most recent election is proof.