{"id":23333,"date":"2022-08-24T11:53:14","date_gmt":"2022-08-24T18:53:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=23333"},"modified":"2022-08-24T11:53:15","modified_gmt":"2022-08-24T18:53:15","slug":"cancel-it-all-say-progressives-as-biden-favors-10000-in-means-tested-student-debt-relief","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2022\/08\/24\/cancel-it-all-say-progressives-as-biden-favors-10000-in-means-tested-student-debt-relief\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Cancel It All,’ Say Progressives as Biden Favors $10,000 in Means-Tested Student Debt Relief"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Common<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Demonstrators<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Student loan debt holders take part in a demonstration outside of the White House staff entrance on July 27, 2022. (Photo: Jemal Countess\/Getty Images for We, The 45 Million)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Student debt is a nearly $2,000,000,000,000 crisis,” said Rep. Cori Bush. “POTUS must cancel student debt. All of it.”<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

JAKE JOHNSON<\/a> August 23, 2022 (CommonDreams.org)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fresh reporting out Monday<\/strong> night indicates that President Joe Biden is “leaning toward” canceling $10,000 in federal student loan debt for borrowers with annual incomes below $125,000, a means-tested plan that would fall well short of progressive lawmakers’ call for the administration to wipe at least $50,000 off the books for all borrowers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to<\/a> CNN<\/em>, Biden’s long-awaited announcement of student debt cancellation “could come as early as Wednesday,” a week before the student loan repayment and interest freeze that’s been in effect since 2020 is set to end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“For millions of people, $10,000 doesn’t cover the interest. It won’t lower their monthly payments.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Administration officials have also recently discussed the possibility of additional forgiveness for specific subsets of the population,” CNN<\/em> reported Monday without offering details.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Progressives were quick to make clear their dissatisfaction with the latest update on the president’s plan, which\u2014while fulfilling a campaign promise\u2014would leave millions saddled with massive student debt balances. The average federal student loan debt balance is $37,667, according to<\/a> the Education Data Initiative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Student debt is a nearly $2,000,000,000,000 crisis,” tweeted<\/a> Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.), a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. “POTUS must cancel student debt. All of it.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Proponents of full-scale debt cancellation argue that the president has the legal authority<\/a> to order the Education Department to eliminate all outstanding student loan debt, a move they say would come with economic<\/a> and political benefits while steering clear of the bureaucratic mess<\/a> that inevitably accompanies means-tested programs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/StrikeDebt\/status\/1561852849281179648?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1561852849281179648%7Ctwgr%5Ef848102d4c149a6e4340f7bfa8159aaacd902471%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.commondreams.org%2Fnews%2F2022%2F08%2F23%2Fcancel-it-all-say-progressives-biden-favors-10000-means-tested-student-debt-relief<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last year, Biden instructed Education Secretary Miguel Cardona to compile a memo on presidential authority to cancel student debt without congressional authorization, but the document has yet to be released<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The White House has reportedly<\/a> been “deeply divided over the political and economic effects of loan forgiveness,” with officials such as Susan Rice<\/a>, the head of Biden’s Domestic Policy Council, arguing against broad-based student debt cancellation during internal discussions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain, meanwhile, “has argued that it would galvanize a base of young voters increasingly frustrated with the president,” The<\/em> New York Times<\/em> reported<\/a> in June.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Warren Gunnels, the staff director for Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), contended<\/a> on social media Monday that “Republicans will attack forgiving $10,000 in means-tested student debt as ferociously as if Biden canceled all student debt.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The former choice, though, would demoralize “tens of millions of Americans who will still be drowning” in debt, Gunnels added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Think big or go home,” he wrote. “Cancel all of it.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prominent advocacy organizations have also warned Biden against canceling just $10,000 in student debt, with the head of the NAACP recently comparing<\/a> such limited relief to “pouring a bucket of ice water on a forest fire.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In an analysis<\/a> released Monday, Matt Bruenig of the People’s Policy Project noted that $10,000 in student debt forgiveness would “wipe out the student loan balances of around 31% of student debtors while halving or more the student debt balances of another 21% of student debtors.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To many progressive advocates and borrowers, that’s nowhere near enough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“For millions of people, $10,000 doesn’t cover the interest,” tweeted<\/a> Astra Taylor, co-founder of the Debt Collective, the nation’s first debtors’ union. “It won’t lower their monthly payments.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Student loan debt holders take part in a demonstration outside of the White House staff entrance on July 27, 2022. (Photo: Jemal Countess\/Getty Images for We, The 45 Million) “Student debt is a nearly $2,000,000,000,000 crisis,” said Rep. Cori Bush. “POTUS must cancel student debt. All of it.” JAKE JOHNSON… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23333"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23333"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23333\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23334,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23333\/revisions\/23334"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}