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UPSET: Sen. Sinema of AZ switches to Independent, closing Dems Senate majority

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Just days after Democrats officially took control over the United States Senate after Democrat Raphael Warnock beat Republican Herschel Walker in the Georgia senate seat runoff, in comes Senator Kyrsten Sinema.

Arizona Democratic Senator Kyrsten Sinema announced Friday that she has officially left the Democratic Party and has registered as an Independent. Sinema’s decision officially took the Democrats from a 51 to 49 majority in the Senate, to a closer 50 to 49, with Sinema as the single Independent.

Sinema made her huge announcement in an op-ed for the local media outlet Arizona Central. “I have joined the growing numbers of Arizonans who reject party politics by declaring my independence from the broken partisan system in Washington,” she stated.

The New York Post reports that “Sinema, in a separate Politico interview published Friday, said she would not caucus with the Republican Party. If that holds, Democrats could still maintain greater control in the closely divided chamber.”

Prior to the hard-fought Georgia race, Democrats had held the Senate 50-50 with Vice President Kamala Harris holding a tie-breaking vote.

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Economy

White House announced $6 billion student loan forgiveness for 78,000 public service workers

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The White House recently announced a $6 billion loan forgiveness program. Nurses, teachers and firefighters are among the 78,000 public service workers who will qualify. Fox Business reports:

Due to fixes to the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program, workers that never received forgiveness are now having their debts partially forgiven or canceled. Only about 7,000 public service borrowers received forgiveness prior to the Biden Administration, now that total hovers closer to 870,000, the announcement said.

“Today’s announcement comes on top of the significant progress we’ve achieved for students and student loan borrowers in the past few years,” the announcement stated. “This includes: providing the largest increases in Pell Grants in over a decade to help families who earn less than roughly $60,000 a year; fixing Income-Driven Repayment plans so borrowers in repayment for years get the relief they earned; and creating the most generous Income-Driven Repayment plan in history – the SAVE plan.”

However, there is concern over fairness that older generations are still paying off student loans and could risk losing Social Security. A group of representatives wrote a letter to Congress, hoping to address the issue of seniors still paying down student loans. Currently, under the Treasury Offset Program (TOP), the government can collect funds, such as tax refunds and Social Security, to pay outstanding student loan balances, reports Fox Business.

“Under the TOP, the federal government can withhold up to 15 percent of monthly Social Security or disability benefits for defaulted student loans,” the lawmakers explained in their letter.

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