Student Loan Borrowers Vow To Default ‘En Masse’ To Plunge US Into ‘Financial Crisis That Will Dwarf Great Recession’

Student loan borrowers have vowed to default on their loans “en masse” following the decision by the U.S. Supreme Court to cancel Joe Biden’s student loan debt forgiveness plan.

According to the borrowers, defaulting “en masse” would be a really effective way to say “f*** you” to America and plunge the nation into a “financial crisis that will dwarf the Great Recession.”

“Okay, thing I can actually talk about: Mass default on student loan debt would be a really effective message and f*** you to this country from the folks most impacted by our constant slide backwards. Just don’t pay it. Hit the bricks. En masse,” Twitter user Derek Van Dyke wrote.

Newsweek report: On Friday, the Supreme Court reached a 6-3 decision to side with Republican-led states and cancel Biden’s student debt forgiveness plan, which sought to cancel up to $10,000 in debt for borrowers with an income of $125,000 or less and up to $20,000 for Pell Grant recipients.

Payments on student loan debt have been paused for several months dating back to former President Donald Trump’s administration. However, under the recently signed debt ceiling legislation, payments are set to resume in October and interest on the payments will resume in September.

In the ruling on Friday, Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts said that the Biden administration and Education Department Secretary Miguel Cardona asserted that the HEROES Act, granted them authority to cancel $430 billion of student loan debt.

“It does not. We hold today that the Act allows the Secretary to ‘waive or modify’ existing statutory or regulatory provisions applicable to financial assistance programs under the Education Act, not to rewrite that statute from the ground up,” Roberts wrote in his opinion.

Following the decision on Friday, a number of other social media users brought up the idea of defaulting on their loans.

“To the 45M borrowers of Student Loan Debt just let your loans go into default. Let the U.S. deal with $1.7T in student loans being in default. Show them a financial crisis that will dwarf the calamity of the Great Recession,” Twitter user leograndprince wrote.

Twitter user @stellarvelocity said, “I have an idea, it is totally radical and definitely has never been said before: The most American thing you can do now is defiantly default on your student loan. If everyone did it in the same month/months, it would completely derail the entire system and send a clear message.”

According to the Department of Education, if your loan remains delinquent for an extended period of time, it may go into default.

“For a loan made under the William D. Ford Federal Direct Loan Program or the Federal Family Education Loan Program, you’re considered to be in default if you don’t make your scheduled student loan payments for at least 270 days,” the Education Department says.

In 2016, Fast Company reported on what could happen if every student loan borrower defaulted on their loans. According to Fast Company, this would result in rising interest rates across the nation and impact the government’s ability to borrow money.

Bankrate Analyst Sarah Foster explained to Newsweek on Friday that student loans are a form of unsecured debt, which means that the government is not able to “repossess your education or belongings if you don’t make payments.”