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The Guardian
Biden is already reneging on promises to ease student debt
Let’s be clear: Whatever he may say, Biden absolutely has the power to unilaterally cancel all federal student debt Student activists at the University of Washington in St. Louis are pulling a dummy ball and a chain representing student debt. Photograph: Paul J. Richards / AFP / Getty Images During his recent town hall, Joe Biden made a series of convoluted and condescending comments on US student debt. His remarks cast doubt on his ability, or will, to deal with the burgeoning student loan crisis in this country. Within hours, #cancelstudentdebt was all the rage on Twitter. Biden’s rambling rationale for the status quo was littered with straw men, invocations of bogus shortages and no solutions. He pitted working-class Americans against each other, suggesting that people who attend private schools do not deserve relief, as if poor students do not also attend those schools. He said the money would be better spent on early childhood education rather than debt forgiveness, as if educators weren’t drowning themselves in student debt, and as if we couldn’t not answer both problems at the same time. He suggested relying on parents or selling a house at a profit to pay off debt, a luxury that those without wealth or intergenerational property cannot afford. And he touted various programs, including Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF), which have failed borrowers totally: over 95% of PSLF applicants have been turned down. Contrary to Biden’s smug comments, Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley recently revealed that she has defaulted on her student loans. Likewise, at a recent Debt Collective event, congressman Nina Turner said she and her son together owed $ 100,000. Former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams, of course, proudly confessed to being in debt, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said becoming a congressman is easier than paying off debt. Philadelphia board member Kendra Brooks (who plans to present a city resolution calling on the Biden administration to write off all student debt) also spoke about her own struggles as a borrower. Their experience and candor – and their commitment to real solutions, including cancellation – demonstrates why we need debtors, not millionaires, in our public service. Let’s be clear on something else. Biden absolutely has the legal power to use executive power to cancel all federal student debt. Congress granted this authority decades ago as part of the Higher Education Act. It has even been put to the test: In response to the Covid pandemic, Donald Trump and his former education secretary, Betsy DeVos, have used this authority three times to suspend payments and interest on student loans. As he walked, Biden gave the distinct impression that he preferred not to have the power to do so. That way, he could blame Congress if his election promises were not kept. (The day after town hall, Biden’s press secretary Jen Psaki tried to clarify his boss’s remarks on whether he will use the executive branch to write off student debt. She said that The administration was still considering the possibility.) Adding to the confusion, Biden seemed unable to keep his own campaign promises, scrambling his proposals to cancel student debt. For the record, he campaigned on two separate boards. First: $ 10,000 “immediate” cancellation for each borrower as a form of Covid relief. Two: the cancellation of all undergraduate student loans for creditors who attended public universities and HBCUs and who earn up to $ 125,000 per year. Keeping both of these promises is the absolute minimum the Biden administration must do to maintain public trust. But the Biden administration should and can do a lot more. Biden should write off all student debt using executive power. It’s the easiest way for the new administration to help tens of millions of people who are being crushed by the double whammy of non-repayable loans and an economy-destroying pandemic. Yet, to date, all the Biden administration has done for this country’s 45 million student debtors is to extend the suspension of federal student loan payments from Trump and DeVos. Pursuing an imperfect Republican policy is hardly a progressive victory – especially not for the 8 million FFEL borrowers who are unfairly excluded from the moratorium. Biden owes this country debt relief not just because he campaigned there, but because he helped cause the problem. A former senator from Delaware, the credit card capital of the world, he spent decades hauling water for financial interest and expanding access to student loans while limiting borrower protection. Biden’s brand is empathetic in chief, but when it comes to student debt, he’s alarmingly out of touch with Biden’s case showing he won’t fix the problem without being pushed. Indeed, the fact that the president passed debt cancellation (even if his proposals are inadequate) is a testament to the continued efforts of the grassroots. The Debt Collective, a group I organize with, has been pushing for the abolition of student debt and free public colleges for almost a decade. On January 21, we launched the Biden Jubilee 100-100 Debt Strike Borrowers demanding full cancellation within the first 100 days of administration. A growing list of Senators and Congressmen have signed resolutions calling on Biden to write off $ 50,000 from a borrower using executive power. (It should be noted that the $ 50,000 figure is based on outdated research. After three years of rapidly rising debt, the researchers behind it are now recommending $ 75,000 for cancellation.) A growing number of votes cast from across the country and from all walks of life cry out in unison: cancel student debt. Biden’s Mark is Chief Empathetic, but on student debt he’s alarming. The president shared that his own children had borrowed for college and noted that he was “the poorest man in Congress” – that is, the poorest man in a dead body. millionaires. He didn’t question the ease with which his well-connected kids got good-paying jobs to pay off their loans, nor did he mention that people his age could go to college without being weighed down by a mountain of debts. All people want today is the same opportunity that Biden and his peers had. Instead of acknowledging this generational disparity, Biden reiterated a common criticism of more generous forms of student debt cancellation – that it would help the privileged, especially the tiny subset of creditors who frequented the Ivy League. But as Ocasio-Cortez tweeted in response, “Very rich people already have a student loan forgiveness program. It’s called their parents. As it stands, the poor and working-class tend to pay more for the same degrees than their affluent counterparts because of years or decades of monthly payments and accrued interest. Our debt-financed higher education system is a tax on the poor who dare to lead a better life. Imagine if, instead of defending the status quo, Biden used his platform to articulate the social benefits of student debt cancellation. He could have said that canceling student debt will support 45 million Americans and provide an estimated trillion dollar economic boost over the next decade and create millions of desperately needed jobs. He could have talked about canceling student debt as a way to help close the racial wealth gap, acknowledging that black borrowers are the most overwhelmed, or talking about how education should be free and accessible. to all if we want to expand opportunities and deepen democracy. He could have admitted that the cancellation will help struggling seniors, especially those whose Social Security checks are seized due to student loan defaults. He could have mentioned that debt cancellation is popular, even among many Republicans, and that eliminating it will help his party stay in power. He didn’t say anything about it, so we have to say it. Debtors need to organize, go online and take to the streets. We live in a period of crossed crises. Some of them are very difficult to solve. But canceling student debt is easy. By refusing to act, the president and his administration choose to perpetuate a system that causes profound, unnecessary and preventable damage. Astra Taylor is the author of Democracy May Not Exist, but we’ll miss him when he’s gone, and an organizer of the Debt Collective
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