- AOC said student-loan forgiveness is good, even for those who have already paid off their loans.
- Biden is getting closer to acting on debt relief, saying he’ll make a decision in the coming weeks.
- He said he’s not considering $50,000 in forgiveness, an amount progressives have pushed for.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York says student-loan forgiveness is good for everyone — even those who have already paid off their debt.
“Maybe student loan forgiveness doesn’t impact you,” Ocasio-Cortez wrote in an Instagram story, in response to a question on the benefits of debt cancellation for those who already paid off their loans. “That doesn’t make it bad. I am sure there are certainly other things that student loan borrowers’ taxes pay for. We can do good things and reject the scarcity mindset that says doing something good for someone else comes at the cost of something for ourselves.”
AOC responds to a question on student-loan forgiveness on Instagram. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
“It all comes around,” she added. “It’s okay. We can support things we won’t directly benefit from.”
The student-loan-forgiveness conversation is picking up steam after President Joe Biden told reporters last week that he and lawmakers will come to a decision on relief “in the next couple of weeks.” While he said he is not considering canceling $50,000 in student debt for every federal borrower — an amount many progressives have been pushing for — a number of reports have suggested the president is considering at least $10,000 in relief that will likely be tied to income limits, and it will be implemented before the pause on payments expires after August 31.
While many Democrats would like to see broad loan-forgiveness legislation, Ocasio-Cortez told The Washington Post she has concerns with subjecting the relief to income thresholds.
“I don’t believe in a cutoff, especially for so many of the front-line workers who are drowning in debt and would likely be excluded from relief,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “Canceling $50,000 in debt is where you really make a dent in inequality and the racial wealth gap. $10,000 isn’t.”
Republican lawmakers feel differently. Since the news came out that the president is considering canceling some amount of student debt this summer, many of them slammed the possibility of broad relief. Sen. Tom Cotton, of Arkansas, for example, wrote about the cost forgiving debt would have on taxpayers on Twitter: “Why should those who didn’t go to college or responsibly paid their loans be responsible for $13,000 in new debt?”
Utah Sen. Mitt Romney said broad relief would be a “bribe” to voters — an attempt by Democrats to win the midterm elections. Maine Sen. Susan Collins previously told Insider student-loan forgiveness is “not fair” to those who have already repaid their debt and argued people with higher incomes shouldn’t qualify for the broad relief Biden is considering.
But most Democrats want to see Biden enact broad student-loan relief for everyone, free of thresholds.
“Instead of continuously extending the pause under pressure he needs to cancel all student loan debt,” Rep. Jamaal Bowman, of New York, recently tweeted.