Once more we have an uptick on the possibility that President Biden is seriously considering student-loan forgiveness. “It’s all on the table right now,” Biden told reporters on Monday while on a stroll in Rehoboth Beach in Delaware.
He seemed to confirm rumors that relief was on the way for those borrowers earning under $150,000 annually, though the $10,000 mentioned as the payment was far below what some of his Democratic colleagues would like to see.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, a consistent critic of the planned amount, has said that the Party “can do better” than the proposed amount in debt cancellation. In an Instagram she posted last week she reiterated her concern about the relief, stating that “there are policies where a halfway approach is kind of a waste as it’s not much better than nothing, and resources are better spent elsewhere. We push so that people can actually experience the benefits of a policy.”
Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts voiced a similar complaint about the dollar figure and has recently advocated $50,000 in relief. She told the press that amount “was a number to get the most relief to the people.”
Even more disapproval of the plan, as expected, came from GOP elected officials, who insisted that student-loan relief would hurt taxpayers and the economy. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona has fielded questions from Republicans who want to know the details of the relief measure, if and when it was fully developed.
Biden’s recent hint of putting the plan in effect was a follow-up to an earlier announcement back in April with no date set for the action. Obviously, it’s easier to fall off a bike than to get the relief ball rolling.