(NewsNation) — “Shark Tank” investor Kevin O’Leary says President Joe Biden’s student debt cancellation is “completely unfair.”
“Why is this cohort the only one that gets this deal?” O’Leary asked during an appearance on NewsNation’s “The Hill.” “How unfair is that? What kind of a message is that? I’m 100% against this.”
O’Leary calls the cancellation “unfair to people who didn’t go to college prior to this forgiveness of debt because they couldn’t afford it.”
On Wednesday, the Biden administration announced the cancellation of $1.2 billion in student debt, targeting approximately 153,000 borrowers who took out smaller student loans and have been repaying them for a decade or more. In total, the Biden administration has now forgiven a total of $138 billion for nearly 4 million borrowers.
These borrowers are the first to benefit from the SAVE plan that provides forgiveness to borrowers who have been in repayment for at least 10 years and took out $12,000 or less in student loans, according to a White House fact sheet.
The move was initially planned for July, but the White House said Biden administration officials decided to provide the debt forgiveness ahead of schedule.
Cassie Buchman contributed to this report.