President Biden
Joe Biden Biden declines in student loan K forgiveness plan Biden offers to help wife obtain vaccine for son with pre-existing condition Biden optimistic US will be in ‘very different circumstances’ with pandemic by Christmas MORE is facing intense backlash from progressive lawmakers after he said Tuesday he would not sign a measure to forgive up to $ 50,000 in federally held student debt per borrower through executive measures.
At a CNN town hall, Biden shot down the debt cancellation plan pushed by top Democratic lawmakers and prominent progressives, including the majority senate leader. Charles Schumer
Chuck Schumer READ: Trump Statement Rips At McConnell A Powerful Tool To Stand Up Against The Supreme Court – If Democrats Use It Well Senate Approves Bill To Award Capitol Police Officer Congressional Gold Medal MORE (NY) Sen. Elizabeth Warren
Elizabeth WarrenBiden Refuses Forgiveness Plan For K Student Loan Jamaal Bowman’s Mother Dies From COVID-19: ‘I’ll Share Her Legacy With All Of You’ Impeachment Managers Settle Case With New Warning About Trump MORE (Mass.) And Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
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“I’m not going to let that happen,” Biden said when asked if he would support $ 50,000 in student loan forgiveness.
He reiterated his previous support for up to $ 10,000 in debt relief per borrower, but expressed concern that a higher total forgiven by executive measures would disproportionately help the well-off and potentially break the law.
“I really think in this moment of economic pain and tension that we should eliminate the interest on the debt that has accrued, No. 1. And No. 2, I’m willing to write off the $ 10,000 debt, but not [$50,000]
Biden had previously expressed opposition to a $ 50,000 forgiveness plan, and the White House has said repeatedly that the president prefers to ease student debt through an act of Congress. But Biden’s public, unequivocal refusal to go as far as progressives want, sparked the president’s first major fight with the left since taking office.
“An ocean of student loan debt is holding back 43 million borrowers and weighing disproportionately on black and brown Americans,” Schumer and Warren said in a joint statement Wednesday. The two filed another resolution earlier this month calling on Biden to cancel up to $ 50,000 per borrower, a bill they first introduced in September.
It’s time to act. We will keep fighting, ”they said.
There are about 43 million Americans who owe a total of $ 1.6 trillion in student loans to the federal government. While progressives have argued for years that forgiveness of student debts is essential to reduce inequality and bridge the racial wealth divide, moderates like Biden have joined in as a way to smooth the damage from the coronavirus recession.
The battle over how far to go with the student debt cancellation has been simmering since Biden’s election in November and intensified when the Democrats took control of the Senate in January.
The narrow Democratic majority has given Biden a way to pass his preferred plan – a bill, not an executive order, to forgive up to $ 10,000 per borrower – through Congress.
But progressives had increased the pressure on Biden to aim higher and use executive action well before the democratic takeover of the senate.
Schumer, who is expected to face a primary challenge from the left in 2022, said in November that the incoming president had the power to unilaterally eliminate $ 50,000 in debt per borrower. Warren went even further in December, insisting that Biden had a “moral obligation” to follow the plan she proposed with Schumer.
Biden is open to an enforceable title, but he suggested on Tuesday that there may be legal limits on how much he could forgive. The president also said he was uncomfortable wiping out debts from graduates of prestigious universities and preferred to renew existing public service forgiveness programs.
“The idea that I say to a community, I’m going to forgive billions of dollars is dead to people who have gone to Harvard and Yale and Penn … is that they will be forgiven rather than use that money to provide early education for young children who come from disadvantaged circumstances? ”said Biden.
While Biden’s refusal to aim higher for debt relief disappointed progressives, his justification infuriated them.
‘Who cares what school someone went to? Entire generations of working-class children have been encouraged to take on more debt under the guise of elitism. This is wrong, ”tweeted Ocasio-Cortez on Wednesday. “Nowhere does it say that we should exchange early childhood education for student loan forgiveness. We can have both. “
Despite mounting pressure from progressives, it can take months for Biden to forgive student loans.
Biden has extended the hiatus on federal student loan payments and interest accrual through September, easing some of the urgency to address debt.
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki
Jen Psaki Biden Opposes K Student Loan Forgiveness Plan Biden Says Goal Is To Reopen Schools Five Days A Week In First 100 Days Biden Officials Consider Priorities After Coronavirus Emergency MORE said Wednesday that the previously announced legal review of his debt cancellation authority would not take place until after the nominee attorney general Merrick Garland
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“What the president has told Sens. Schumer and Warren is that once his team is on the Justice Department … he will ask them to conduct a legal assessment of his authority to act through executive action.” , said Psaki.
“There is a legal consideration out there, as I think everyone would agree, and there is a policy consideration, and once it is decided, it will decide a path forward,” she added.
Biden’s legal power to ease student debt is not a set law. While progressive legal analysts say the higher education law allows Biden to instruct the education secretary to zero the student loan balance, conservative strata say debt forgiveness is beyond the bounds of the law.
Former Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos
Betsy DeVos When Randi Weingarten repeats Betsy Devos Schumer, Warren Introduces Bill calling on Biden to clear out student loan debt Former Trump Officials Find Tough Job Market MORE wondered if she had the authority to cancel student loan debt during the start of the coronavirus pandemic, but Trump administration lawyers decided it would be illegal. However, their analysis is not legally binding, and Biden’s administration attorneys could reach a different conclusion.
Psaki also suggested on Wednesday that Biden would limit debt relief based on a borrower’s income and education level – far from the larger, one-sided eradication supported by progressives.
He previously said that aid above $ 10,000 should be targeted based on the borrower’s income, based on the type of debt involved – public schools versus private schools, graduate schools versus undergraduate – there are, of course, a lot of considerations, “said they.
Even if Biden determines that he has the power to forgive student debt through an executive order, he will still face backlash from progressives based on the scope of his forgiveness plan.
“We have the * Senate leader * on board to forgive $ 50k. Biden holds back, but many of the arguments against it just don’t make sense on closer inspection, ”tweeted Ocasio-Cortez.
“We can and must do it. Keep pushing! “