President Joe Biden seems increasingly poised to take executive action on student debt relief at the federal level with the upcoming midterm elections
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy on Friday dismissed President Joe Biden’s reported plan to allocate $10,000 in state student loans per borrower as a political “stunt.”
“To distract from his roving agenda, President Biden wants working Americans to pay thousands for high-income people to graduate from college,” McCarthy exclusively told .
“This latest stunt will cost taxpayers hundreds of billions, force non-college Americans to subsidize the degrees of the elite, drive up the cost of higher education for future generations, and exacerbate inflation even further. “
He concluded, “The Biden administration is not interested in solving problems — they just want to placate their progressive base while they make working Americans foot the bill.”
It was reported Friday that Biden could take executive action to pay off at least $10,000 in federal student debt per borrower, it was reported Friday.
It would fulfill a promise Biden made during the 2020 campaign to help Democrats get voters to the polls in November’s midterm elections.
A recent analysis by the Brookings Institute put the total cost of forgiving $10,000 to each of approximately 43 million student loan borrowers at approximately $373 billion.
However, sources told Bloomberg any aid is likely to be more likely to target low- and middle-income earners.
However, administration officials left the door open to a “possibly greater” amount than $10,000.
“Lots of options on the table,” acquaintances told The Hill.
She added that the White House is “listening a lot right now.”
Biden dismissed the idea of forgiving every federal student loan borrower $50,000 when asked about the debt relief Thursday.
Protesters gather at the Department of Education headquarters in Washington, DC on April 4, 2022 to call on President Biden to cancel all student loan debt
Progressives have been calling on Biden to take action on federal student debt for more than a year
has reached out to the White House for comment.
If action were taken to forgive the entire $373 billion in student debt — out of a total of about $1.6 trillion held by American borrowers — it would be nearly the same amount that the U.S. spent on assistance of poor families through the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program in the United States would have spent two decades between 2000 and 2019.
It would also be more federal dollars than the government has spent on breakfasts and lunches in public schools in low-income areas in 20 years, according to Brookings.
In comments to , McCarthy dismissed Biden’s reported plan as a political “stunt”.
The $373 billion figure is also more than double what the country has spent over two decades providing energy assistance to Americans who struggle to pay for heating during the winter.
On Thursday, the president ruled out the possibility of canceling up to $50,000 in state student debt per borrower, as some congressional Democrats have called for.
However, he publicly confirmed that at least some debt relief is being considered.
“I am considering looking into debt reduction,” the president said during a news conference on aid to Ukraine.
“I’m not considering $50,000 in debt relief, but I’m looking closely at whether or not there will be additional debt relief.”
He added: “I’ll have an answer to that in the next few weeks.”
Progressive groups and left-wing lawmakers have urged Biden to take executive action to ease the burden of student debt that plagues more than 40 million Americans.
The President has extended several times the existing pause on federal student loan repayments – instituted by former President Donald Trump over the COVID-19 pandemic – with the latest moratorium expiring on August 31.
But progressives in Congress like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have said the pause is merely delaying the uncertainty millions of borrowers are feeling.
Late last month, nearly 100 lawmakers, led by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Senator Elizabeth Warren, signed a letter calling for Biden to lend up to $50,000 per borrower.
Even canceling $10,000 in student debt per borrower would be almost as much as the federal government has spent on welfare over 20 years
That would still have been around $1 trillion, according to Brookings analysis.
That’s more than the US government has spent on supplemental Social Security income or housing assistance programs over a 20-year period.
But not all Democrats agree on how to proceed.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in July that “the President can’t do that.”
Conservative Democratic Senator Joe Manchin told reporters earlier this week that action was needed to address the rising student loan debt, but was reluctant to “just write it off completely.”
Republicans, meanwhile, have hammered Biden over the idea. GOP lawmakers claim that canceling student debt would disproportionately benefit high earners and unfairly penalize American taxpayers.
Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) claimed it would create $13,000 in new debt for “every family in America.”
“Why should those who didn’t go to college or responsibly pay off their loans be responsible for $13,000 in new debt?” Cotton wrote on Twitter.
Moderate Republican Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah), who previously voted with Democrats to pass Biden’s agenda, has criticized the debt relief as “desperate.”
Desperate polls call for desperate action: Dems consider forgiving trillions on student loans. Other Bribe Proposals: Giving Car Loans? Credit Card Debt Forgive? mortgages granted? And impose a wealth tax on the super-rich to pay for it all. What could possibly go wrong?’ asked Romney.
And a group of Republican senators is introducing a bill that would ban the president from making mass student loans.
They are led by John Thune (RS.D.), Senate Minority Whip. The bill also aims to cap moratoriums on student loans after Biden recently extended the relief measure to August 31.
“Taxpayers and working families should not be responsible for continuing to bear the costs associated with this suspension of payments,” Thune said in a statement to Fox.
Meanwhile, on Wednesday night, McCarthy released a list of “winners” and “losers” after reports that the president was ready to forgive some of the $1.6 trillion in student loans held by some 43 million Americans.
The Republican leader in the House of Representatives has created a list of “winners” and “losers” in a scenario in which President Biden cancels some or all of the $1.6 trillion in state student loan debt
‘FACT → Debt cannot be “forgiven”. It can only be transferred. Someone always has to pay,” McCarthy wrote on Twitter.
“As the Social Democrats plot a student loan debt transfer, here’s who wins and who loses:”
The two ‘winners’ in the scenario, which does not yet have a price tag, are ‘high earners like doctors and lawyers who hold 39% of America’s student loan debt’ and ‘colleges and universities who can raise prices since the government pays.’
McCarthy’s list of “losers” is nearly threefold, including “taxpayers who would be at risk of paying off the loans” and “students and parents who have already paid off or refinanced their loans.”
He claimed it would also burden “prospective students” with higher tuition fees, and anyone with other forms of debt “if their payments pile up.”
“Every single American” is also losing, the GOP leader said, “as this will do nothing to solve our debt crisis and will drive inflation even further.”
Inflation hit a decade-high in March, rising 8.5 percent year-on-year.