'Tick, Tock, Mr President': Dem Senators Call On Biden To Cancel Student Loan Debt
Current payment pause set to expire in September
With the payment pause on student loan debt put in place due to the financial impact of the COVID pandemic set to expire in just a couple of months, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said other Senate Democrats are continuing to pressure President Biden to cancel $50,000 of federal student loan debt per American borrower.
Schumer (D-NY) has been leading this pressure campaign for several months, along with Sen Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass) and others.
“The size of these payments, for many borrowers, is the size of their rent, their car payment, groceries, childcare. That's going to put a lot of people making hard choices. Do they pay the student loan debt, or keep up with their car payment? Do they keep up with the student loan debt, or keep up with childcare?” Warren said. “Those are hard choices, and remember, the student loan debt system is set up to make the federal government a tough creditor. People will see their wages garnished — even their Social Security get garnished.”
With fees and penalties, so someone — for example — who has borrowed $10,000, if they fall behind, can wind up owing $12,000, $15,000 — or more, Warren said.
“The choice about what to pay will fall hardest on the most vulnerable among us. Forty percent of those with student loan debt do not have a diploma. The majority of Black borrowers do not have a diploma. They are paying for college on a high school graduate's wages.”
Warren cited a study by the Pew Research Center, which found about two-thirds of borrowers are not ready for payments to resume.
“These people live with a sword hanging over their heads, and every day that goes by, that sword draws a little closer. This is a matter of economic justice. It is a matter of racial justice,” she said. “The president of the United States can remove this sword. The president can prevent this pain.”
The president can cancel student student loan debt up to $50,000, according to Warren and other Democrats pushing Biden to take action.
In all, that would help about 36 million Americans, or around 85 percent of borrowers — “and make life a whole lot easier for the remaining 15 percent,” she said.
“We're here today to say, ‘Tick, tock, tick tock, Mr President.’ Millions of Americans ask you now to pick up a pen and cancel student loan debt, to pick up a pen and extend the payment pause, to pick up a pen and make their lives better,” she added.
The Democrats are also asking Biden to, at a minimum, further extend the current payment pause beyond its current expiration in September.
The student loan debt payment pause — put in place at the start of the pandemic emergency, and already extended once by the president — has “proven to be one of the most effective steps that the government has undertaken to get through the health and economic crises created by COVID-19,” Schumer said.
“COVID created severe hardship for some, and threw many others off their stride. To make borrowers repay their debts now would be unfair, would be harsh — and in many instances — would be cruel,” he added. “People were thrown off their stride by COVID. Give them the chance to recover. Wait until the spring.”
Biden has not indicated a willingness to cancel debt at the $50,000 level, however.
Proponents of debt cancellation at that $50,000 level — including Schumer and Warren — clashed publicly last week with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi who argued that Biden simply lacks the executive authority to cancel debt at that level.
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