- Several leading Democrats resisted Biden’s reluctance to cancel $ 50,000 in student loan debt per person.
- Warren, Schumer and AOC urged Democrats to continue to pressure the White House to take immediate action.
- “It is time to act. We will continue to fight,” said Schumer and Warren.
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Several top Democrats backed down on Wednesday against President Joe Biden’s resignation on Tuesday night of his proposal to forgive up to $ 50,000 in student loan debt.
Senators Chuck Schumer of New York and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts issued a joint statement defending their plan and said the forgiveness of the student loan was a measure that Biden’s predecessors in the White House had given in the past.
The pair expressed confidence that the president had the authority to act unilaterally and argued that his proposal would help to narrow the racial wealth gap and stimulate the economy. “It is time to act. We will continue to fight,” said Schumer and Warren.
Other Democrats criticized Biden and doubled his support for student debt relief. Deputy Ayanna Pressley, a sponsor of the plan in the House, tweeted that Biden had the authority to act on his own. “He can and must use it”, she said. “The people deserve nothing less.”
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York tweeted that Democrats should “keep pushing.”
“Who cares which school someone went to?” Ocasio-Cortez wrote. “Entire generations of working-class children have been encouraged to go into more debt under the guise of elitism. This is wrong. Nowhere is it said that we should trade early childhood education for forgiveness of the student loan. We can have both.”
Ocasio-Cortez’s remarks seemed to refer to comments made by Biden at City Hall, questioning the justice of forgiving “billions of dollars in debt, for people who went to Harvard, Yale and Penn”.
‘I will not make this happen’
At City Hall, when asked about the proposed relief measure, Biden replied, “I’m not going to make that happen.”
Instead, the president said he was willing to forgive up to $ 10,000 in student loan debt and praised other measures to provide free community college and allow families with an income of $ 125,000 or less to send their children to state universities for free.
Biden mentioned the six-figure college debt of his three children and said that they gradually paid off over time.
“I don’t think anyone should pay for it, but I think you should be able to fix it,” he said. “I understand the impact of the debt.”
Last year, House Democrats included $ 10,000 in student debt forgiveness in a pandemic relief proposal. But that measure was omitted from the $ 1.9 trillion federal bailout package that is now passing through Congress.
Some experts argue that a broad cancellation of student debt would lift the economy by freeing up spending that could go towards savings or other consumer goods.
The Biden government said it is reviewing legal options to determine whether it can take steps to forgive debts unilaterally. Biden extended a pause on student loan payments until September 30, shortly after taking office and waived interest.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said on Wednesday that Biden “does not favor $ 50,000 in unrestricted loan relief” and said the president believes that any loan cancellation above $ 10,000 per borrower should be “targeted”.