Alexander Mullenix is also pushing ahead with an enormous mountain of debt. He has accumulated $117,000 in student loans in Indiana and California – but only around $19,000 from the government itself. As a Pell grantee, Biden’s plan would have eliminated his government debt entirely. But his basic problem – liabilities in almost six figures – would have remained even then.
The prospects are bleak for the 29-year-old. He has been unemployed since March. He had previously worked for the government – in the area of social housing, of all things. He’s already having a hard time paying his bills. If the installment payments for his loans are added, it will be even tighter, even if his monthly contributions are likely to be low at first.
Also read: Student Loans in the US – “I’ll be dead before I’m free”
Nevertheless: Mullenix is angry. “It’s also ironic that some of my debt comes from studying institutions like the Supreme Court,” he says. “And now I watch as they make unconstitutional and frankly biased decisions to the detriment of people who, in many cases, are buried under the weight of the loans they took out in search of a chance.” His feelings about the decision of the Supreme Court he describes – diplomatically – as “complicated”.