Biden faces leftist backlash over student loans

President BidenJoe Biden Biden balks at student loan forgiveness plan K Biden offers to help woman get vaccine for son with pre-existing disease Biden optimistic US will be in ‘very different circumstances’ with pandemic by Christmas PLUS faces intense backlash from progressive lawmakers after saying Tuesday he would not sign a measure to write off up to $ 50,000 in federal student debt per borrower through management action.

At a CNN town hall, Biden abolished the debt cancellation plan pushed by leading Democratic lawmakers and prominent progressives, including the Senate majority leader. Charles SchumerChuck SchumerREAD: Trump’s statement tears McConnell apart A powerful tool to take on the Supreme Court – if Democrats use it right, Senate passes bill to award Congressional gold to a Capitol Hill police officer MORE (NY), Sen. Elizabeth warrenElizabeth Warren Biden balks at K’s student loan forgiveness plan Jamaal Bowman’s mother dies from COVID-19: ‘I share her legacy with all of you’ Impeachment officials end case with new warning on Trump MORE (Mass.) And Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-CortezTweets from Alexandria Ocasio-CortezTexas lawmakers mocking California power outages resurface amid winter storm The Memo: Biden steps out of shadow of Trump Governor of Puerto Rico: Congress is ‘morally obligated’ ” to act on the state vote (NEW YORK)

“I won’t make it,” Biden said when asked if he would support $ 50,000 in student loan cancellation.

He reiterated his previous support for debt relief of up to $ 10,000 per borrower, but expressed concern that a higher total remitted by executive action would help disproportionately. the well-to-do and potentially violate the law.

“I think at this time of economic hardship and stress we should eliminate the interest on accumulated debts, # 1 and # 2, I’m ready to cancel the $ 10,000 debt, but not [$50,000]. “

Biden had previously expressed his opposition to a $ 50,000 rebate plan and the White House has repeatedly stated that the president would prefer to ease student debt through legislation from Congress. But Biden’s public and unequivocal refusal to go as far as progressives want sparked the president’s first big fight with the left since taking office.

“A sea of ​​student loan debt is holding back 43 million borrowers and disproportionately weighing down black and brown Americans,” Schumer and Warren said in a joint statement Wednesday. The two reintroduced a resolution earlier this month calling on Biden to write off up to $ 50,000 per borrower, a bill they first introduced in September.

“It’s time to act. We will continue to fight, ”they said.

There are approximately 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 canceling student debt is key to reducing inequality and closing the racial wealth gap, moderates like Biden have come to it as a way to ease the damage from the coronavirus recession. .

The battle over how far to go on student debt cancellation has simmered since Biden’s election in November and intensified when Democrats took control of the Senate in January.

The slim Democratic majority gave Biden a way to push his favorite plan – a bill, not an executive order, to forgive up to $ 10,000 per borrower – through Congress.

But progressives had pressured Biden to aim higher and use executive action long before the Democratic takeover of the Senate.

Schumer, who is set to face a major challenge from the left in 2022, said in November that the new president has the power to unilaterally eliminate $ 50,000 in debt per borrower. Warren in December went even further, insisting that Biden had a “moral obligation” to follow the plan she proposed with Schumer.

Biden is open to an executive debt relief order, but he suggested Tuesday that there could be legal limits on what he could forgive. The president also said he was uncomfortable with wiping off debt from prestigious university graduates and preferred to revamp pre-existing forgiveness programs based on public service.

“The idea that I’m telling a community I’m going to forgive billions of dollars is dead for the people who went to Harvard and Yale and Penn… is that going to be forgiven rather than using that money?” to provide early education for young children who come from disadvantaged situations? Biden said.

While Biden’s refusal to take debt relief higher has disappointed progressives, his rationale has made them angry.

“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, ”Ocasio-Cortez tweeted Wednesday. “Nowhere does it say that we must arbitrate early childhood education over student loan cancellation. We can have both.

Despite mounting pressure from progressives, it could be months before Biden decides to cancel student loans.

Biden extended the hiatus on federal student loan payments and accrued interest until September, which in part relieves the urgency to tackle debt.

White House press secretary Jen psakiJen Psaki Biden balks at K Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan says his goal is to reopen schools five days a week in first 100 days Biden officials reflect on priorities after coronavirus relief bill MORE said on Wednesday that the previously announced legal review of its debt forgiveness power would only take place after the attorney general is appointed Merrick garlandMerrick Brian Garland Progressives Urge Biden To Pick Attorney General To Prosecute Trump Federal Courts Remedy Is Not All About Supreme Court Expansion was confirmed by the Senate, suggesting the prospect of further delays on debt forgiveness.

“What the President told the Senses. Schumer and Warren is that once his team is in place at the Department of Justice… he will ask them to conduct a legal review of his power to act by executive action, ”Psaki said.

“There is a legal consideration there, as I think everyone agrees, and a political consideration, and once that is concluded he will decide the way forward,” she added.

Biden’s legal authority to relieve student debt is not an established law. While progressive legal analysts say the higher education law gives Biden the ability to ask the education secretary to zero student loan balances, conservative layers say debt cancellation exceeds the limits of the law.

Former Secretary of Education Betsy DeVosBetsy DeVosWhen Randi Weingarten echoes Betsy Devos Schumer, Warren introduces bill calling on Biden to write off student loan debt Former Trump officials find job market tough MORE debated whether she had the power to write off her student loan debt at the start of the coronavirus pandemic, but lawyers for the Trump administration determined that would be illegal. Their analysis, however, is not legally binding, and lawyers for the Biden administration might come to a different conclusion.

Psaki also suggested Wednesday that Biden would limit debt relief based on the borrower’s income and education level – a far cry from the larger one-sided erasure backed by progressives.

He has said previously that relief over $ 10,000 should be targeted based on the borrower’s income, depending on the type of debt in question – public schools versus private schools, graduate schools or undergraduate schools – there is obviously a lot of considerations at play, ”she said.

Even though Biden determines he has the power to write off student debt through an executive order, he is still likely to face the return of the progressives due to the scope of his forgiveness plan.

“We have the * Senate Majority Leader * on board to forgive $ 50,000. Biden is holding back, but a lot of the arguments against it just don’t hold up to a close inspection, ”Ocasio-Cortez tweeted.

“We can and must do it. Keep pushing! “