Posted on 02/17/2021 7:56:57 AM PST by Red Badger
President Joe Biden just delivered some very bad news to Democrats, especially the far-left wing of the party.
During a CNN town hall on Tuesday night, Biden said he would not eliminate $50,000 in student loan debt, shooting down a proposal that prominent Democrats introduced this month.
However, Biden did say that he is open to some level of loan forgiveness.
“I will not make that happen,” Biden said when an audience member asked him to commit to cancel at least $50,000 in debt.
“My point is: I understand the impact of debt, and it can be debilitating,” Biden said. “I am prepared to write off the $10,000 debt but not $50 [thousand], because I don’t think I have the authority to do it.”
Biden said he didn’t want to forgive the debts of borrowers who attended elite private schools like “Harvard and Yale and Penn,” arguing the money would be better repurposed toward early childhood education and making community college tuition-free.
Biden also questioned whether he has the authority to cancel billions of dollars in loans without Congress.
WATCH:
We've reached a dozen audience questioners in the #BidenTownHall with yet another Democrat, demanding that the Biden administration immediately wipe out "a $50,000 minimum" of student loan debt in order to save the American Dream. pic.twitter.com/YoBf1BOzJa
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) February 17, 2021
Biden faces growing pressure from his own party to take bolder action on student debt and to bypass Congress to do so.
Unsurprisingly, it took little time for New York socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to weigh in.
The case against student loan forgiveness is looking shakier by the day.
We’ve got the *Senate Majority Leader* on board to forgive $50k. Biden’s holding back, but many of the arguments against it just don’t hold water on close inspection.
We can and should do it. Keep pushing!
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) February 17, 2021
AOC wrote in two tweets:
1. Who cares what school someone went to? Entire generations of working class kids were encouraged to go into more debt under the guise of elitism. This is wrong.
2. Nowhere does it say we must trade-off early childhood education for student loan forgiveness. We can have both.
“The case against student loan forgiveness is looking shakier by the day.
We’ve got the *Senate Majority Leader* on board to forgive $50k. Biden’s holding back, but many of the arguments against it just don’t hold water on close inspection.
We can and should do it. Keep pushing!”
At the beginning of February, Sens. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., introduced a resolution calling on Biden to erase $50,000 in student loan debt via executive order.
The lawmakers maintained that Biden could use existing executive authority under the Higher Education Act to order the Department of Education to “modify, compromise, waive or release” student loans.
It’s hard to gauge where Biden’s head is at.
He seems open to the idea but doesn’t think he has the legal authority to do so.
And he also has the most hardcore liberals in his party pushing him to do this, which would likely be challenged in the courts.
Time will tell what happens next, but Biden certainly just angered AOC and many of her allies.
If you don't have the authority for one, you don't have the authority for the other. If it's wrong to do one of them, it's wrong to do the other.
Student debt is the largest asset on Fed.gov’s books.
Theoretically, he could forgive ALL debts to the US from anywhere............. Using the Presidential Pardon................
I worked as a caregiver, to provide extra funds to get my girls through college debt free. I resent any level of debt forgiveness without the debtor being required to do community service hours.
NOTICE: He doesn't NOT want to do it, he just wants the AUTHORITY to do it from Congress...................
He doesn’t have authority for 50k but he does for 10K ?
😄 Promises made, promises denied. 😰 It’s what they do.
Why should someone who didn’t go to college pay for someone who did?
ROFL!!!
The libs voted for Biden’s campaign promise to eliminate the first $50,000 of student loan debt.
It seems some Useful Idiot Students are No Longer Useful.
Biden said: “I am prepared to write off the $10,000 debt but not $50 [thousand], because I don’t think I have the authority to do it.”
NOTICE: He doesn’t NOT want to do it, he just wants the AUTHORITY to do it from Congress...................
That’s because the government chose to back a bad deal. I can get a federally backed student loan at a premier school for $200,000+ to major in gender studies. What can I produce with that “degree.”
I had no business going to college at 18. I was failing and being stupid going after a bachelor’s of psychology. I was going to pay $40,000 at a state school for a degree that would net ~$32k annually. So I got smart, dropped out, joined the Army, and finished college with a bachelor’s of business administration (4.0 GPA, humble brag) while a husband and father of three. And the Army paid for it.
I’m much better off after taking my path than those who fully finance college with loans while they’re too young and dumb to understand what they’re doing.
Biden said: “I am prepared to write off the $10,000 debt but not $50 [thousand], because I don’t think I have the authority to do it.”
NOTICE: He doesn’t NOT want to do it, he just wants the AUTHORITY to do it from Congress...................
Biden said: “I am prepared to write off the $10,000 debt but not $50 [thousand], because I don’t think I have the authority to do it.”
NOTICE: He doesn’t NOT want to do it, he just wants the AUTHORITY to do it from Congress...................
ah.
Wanting free college is a slap in the face to those who paid their loans back, myself included. Welfare next, guys?
If you don’t have the authority for one, you don’t have the authority for the other.
A well-made point seemingly missed by them.
Good old Chuck is really terrified of AOC isn’t he? A young congresswoman from the deepest blue precinct in NYC controls the Senate Majority Leader.
Let that sink in for a minute and consider....
IF one congresswoman with a small but virulently vocal and active constituency (the far far left) has this much control simply by threatening to primary her opposition just imagine the control DJT could have in the GOP.
...for the ruling class.
Slouching Towards Gomorrah...at warp speed Mr. Sulu.
This debt forgiveness is irresponsible and divisive.
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