The Bold Economic Move Joe Biden Refuses to Make

[Celerity]

Stymied by Congress, the president could make $1 trillion in student loans disappear all by himself.

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2022/01/biden-student-loan-debt-cancellation/621224/



As senator Elizabeth Warren sees it, President Joe Biden can solve a lot of problems—for millions of Americans financially, and for himself politically—with a single move that neither Senator Joe Manchin nor any Republican in Congress could veto. The president, she says, should unilaterally wipe out up to $50,000 in student-loan debt for every federal borrower in the country. Warren has been beating this drum for just about two years, ever since she unveiled the proposal in a bid to outflank her rivals—including Biden—in the 2020 Democratic presidential primary. The senator from Massachusetts has won influential converts to her cause over the past year, most notably Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.

But Biden is not one of them. “I will not make that happen,” he bluntly told a questioner asking about the proposal at a town hall a few weeks after he took office. The president’s political fortunes are very different now than they were then. His ambitious social-spending agenda, already chopped in half, has stalled in the Senate. Biden’s approval ratings have fallen to the low 40s, and with the pandemic raging and Congress bickering, his window for mounting a comeback in time to save his party’s majorities in the midterm elections is shrinking. In Biden’s struggles, progressives like Warren see an opportunity to make a fresh case for action that would prove popular with voters whom Democrats need to turn out this fall.

“I believe the president should cancel student-loan debt because it is the right thing to do for people who have debt and the right thing to do in our economy,” Warren told me by phone last week, having recovered from a mild December bout (“a day and a half of the flu and I was done,” as she described it) of COVID-19. “But,” she added, “even someone who disagreed with me should take a very serious look at the polling data right now.”

Since the spring, Biden has lost some support on the left and even more among independents, but no group of Americans has soured faster on the president than younger voters, according to a recent analysis of polling data by The Economist. That same cohort—Gen Zers and Millennials—is where support for student-debt forgiveness is strongest, surveys have also shown. “One of the hardest things for an elected official to do is demonstrate to people that they can count on that elected official to be on their side,” Warren said. “Canceling student-loan debt for more than 40 million Americans would persuade a lot of young people that this president is in the fight for them.”

snip

[JustAnotherGen]

1. He's three years younger than me

To its backers, mass debt forgiveness is almost a no-brainer. Many see it as both a bold political stroke and a needed moral corrective that would free more than 40 million middle- and working-class Americans from burdens imposed by rapacious lenders during their first moments of adulthood. “We were preyed upon,” Representative Jamaal Bowman told me. “We didn’t know any better. We weren’t aware of how it all worked.” Bowman, 45, is a former schoolteacher and principal now serving his first House term, representing parts of the Bronx and Westchester County in New York. He told me that he and his wife together have more than $100,000 in outstanding debt. “That number is so high, I’m embarrassed to say it aloud,” Bowman said.

I'm wondering if they refinanced with a private loan company - that's my first thought. I wasn't eligible for things like Stafford - my loans were unsubsidized so I worked part time to pay the interest while attending University. There's no way with his background he was only eligible for unsubsidized loans.

In 1993 I thought it was "unfair" that I was working during college, to pay for my peers to not work.


My nephew in law is a barber. Will he be refunded for the money to attend his school - to do something he loves - and also make six figures? Meanwhile - they put my niece's salary as a nurse 100% to her loans to get them paid off in two years. They are 25. What's the solution for them, with a ten month old, one one salary (she's not working until Covid is over) in Northern NJ (high cost of living).

If they go down this path - I think there also needs to be a reimbursement amount established for people who have paid off their student loans in say - the past ten years.

The 50K , 20K . . . pick a number - could help those two put a down payment on the home they are saving for.

I think the hesitant amongst some Americans (including me) - what about the people who paid theirs off recently.

What do we do for them? They need to be included.

I WOULD like to see an immediate 10K wiped out for anyone out of University for 25 years - and any parents who took out education loans for their kids (Gen X and Boomers).

ETA - I have no skin in the 25 year game. I lived at home a few years (only made 25K at first corporate job), did part time jobs as make up artist and ballet teacher - to get them paid off. I probably missed out on a marriage at that time - as I was focused on getting out of debt. No marriage until we didn't have that 53K in debt between the two of us we would have had.

[Klaralven]

2. About 45 million have outstanding student loans, while 34 million have paid them off.

https://educationdata.org/how-many-people-have-student-loans

https://educationdata.org/student-loan-debt-by-race

[Magoo48]

3. Too bad.

This action would produce a high-spirited and enthusiastic surge in morale, as well as a wave of economic activity. It would be a show of faith in our nation’s young folks and widely hailed and remembered.

[jimfields33]

4. I'd like them to go back to 1991 and pay mine (I'd settle for 50K)

If we’re going to do this let’s make it fair to everyone whose every paid a loan. Yep including President Obama.

[Torchlight]

8. Are you suggesting new laws should be retroactive across the board?

[Mr.Bill]

11. This isn't a law.

It's a gift.

[Torchlight]

12. Every law is a gift to some and a bane to others.

(every answer is a reponse. not every reponse is an answer)

[jimfields33]

13. It wouldn't hurt.

[Torchlight]

14. Ex post facto laws are specifically prohibited by the Constitution.

But I am curious how you support your assertion that "it wouldn't hurt" despite that when the prohibition against them was written into the constitution, it was (and still is) considered a hallmark of tyranny as it deprives people of a sense of what behavior will or will not be punished and allows for random punishment at the whim of those in power.

Elucidate please.

[jimfields33]

15. Oh please. Never has anybody been grandfathered into a new law?

It’s happened a lot.

[Torchlight]

16. Please support your assertion ex post facto laws wouldn't hurt

I'm very curious as to your line of reasoning, rather than snippy slogans on this.

[jimfields33]

17. You are talking crimes. Doesn't even register in this scenario

[Torchlight]

18. We were speaking of law. You are moving goalposts

It appears you will not discuss this in good faith. Good luck!

[WhiskeyGrinder]

5. This is such a no-brainer. It's a rare political/economic win.

[George II]

6. Has she ever mentioned how and under what authority President Biden can cancel student debt?

And even if he did, what do we do with this year's graduating class? And next year, and 2024, and on?

And what are all those students willing to do to get their loans cancelled?

Why doesn't Senator Warren, or any of the others in Congress clamoring for student debt cancellation, put their proposals down on paper in detail with short and long term objectives and funding sources, submit it to their respective Chambers, and marshal it through committees onto the floor of the House and Senate?

On Twitter we see two or three tweets from legislators calling for this in 140 characters, but not a single firm, detailed proposal on how to do it other than "let President Biden do it."

[madinmaryland]

9. Yes. It is important that the issues of student loans for future students be addressed, also.

Otherwise we’ll have the same situation arising again and again.

[JustAnotherGen]

10. I agree

I know they keep 'saying' with a pen stroke it can be done -

But I tend to believe Nancy Pelosi on this. Schumer is REALLY good - but Pelosi is the Master of the Game.

[marie999]

7. She should have left out: "and for himself politically".

Democrats start talking about him doing it for political reasons, will be picked up by the Republicans.

[sammythecat]

19. This is a terrible idea

A boon to the college educated class while blue collar workers and those planning on going to college get...nothing.

[Alhena]

21. Plus, the extra spending money the current loan payers receive would be inflationary

So it would basically be a gift for maybe 15 percent of voters, that would be paid for by the rest in inflation. And who would repay student loans in the future? Much smarter to just ignore them and wait for the eventual gift from a president.

This is bad politics and bad policy.

[Alhena]

20. Misleading article- the Supreme Court would overturn it

It's not at all legally clear that the president has authority to do that, and any halfway close legal issues will be decided against Biden by SCOTUS.

[lookyhereyou]

22. this is already being used against the president

today a friend went off on this

he didn't see why he should have to pay

off these loans when he had to go to work

instead of collage , not becoming

and the political ploy. already being spread and colored

negative ...