“Tick tock, tick tock, Mr. President.”
That’s Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s message to President Joe Biden on the federal government’s pause on student loan payments, which is set to expire in September.
“Thirty million Americans will have a bill coming due in a couple months,” Warren said in a news conference Tuesday alongside Rep. Ayanna Pressley and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. “The size of the payments is the size of their rent … groceries, child care. Do they pay the student loan debt or do they make their car payments? People will see their wages garnished. Even Social Security checks get garnished.”
The Democrats, following up on a letter sent to the White House last month, again urged Biden to extend the pause past its September cutoff to at least March 31, 2022. They also repeated calls on Biden to cancel up to $50,000 in federal student loan debt for millions of borrowers, arguing the move would not only boost recovery in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic but also spur growth and equity in an economy that’s disproportionately impacted people of color.
“Precise, intentional policy violence” against Black and brown Americans, Pressley argued, has long forced them to “take on higher rates of student loan debt for just a chance at the same degree as our white peers.”
She called canceling up to $50,000 in debt “one of the most effective ways [Biden] can provide sweeping relief to families … and lay the groundwork for a truly just and equitable recovery.”
Letting the pause expire before next spring would be “unfair, harsh and cruel,” Schumer said.
“This pause has actually shown how important canceling student loan debt is to borrowers and our economy,” Schumer added. “All President Biden has to do is flick his pen and sign it.”
In a recent interview, Warren told MassLive that if the feds extend the pause and cancel debt, it would “completely eliminate student loan debt for 85% of the people who currently carry it. And for the 15% of people who remain, it gives the Department of Education a chance to get them into the right repayment programs.”
The Biden administration has said it’s open to canceling up to $10,000 in debt.
The $50,000 long pushed by Warren, Pressley and Schumer “maximizes racial justice and closes the racial wealth gap the most,” Warren said. “It would help nearly everyone who tried to go to college and it didn’t work out — the 40% of student loan borrowers who do not have a college diploma and are truly struggling hard with student loan debt and would help a huge number of public school teachers and firefighters and people who want a chance to get out there and start their own businesses. It’s the right number, it’s where a lot of people intersect that we could transform an entire generation.”
The majority of young adults who attended college took on debt, including student loans. Prior to the pandemic, the typical monthly payment was between $200 and $299 a month, according to a Federal Reserve study on the economic well-being of households in 2018.
©2021 Advance Local Media LLC. Visit masslive.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
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daughters of satan are running wild in washington d.c.
We should make Pressley and Warren pay off the student debt with their own money. Then without any money these two traitors can live in the inner cities, where the police have been defunded!
MAKE all demonrats pay it out of their OWN POCKETS< and not let ONE MORE DIME OF tax payer funds, be used…
Love this photo!
“Why you keep trying to lead, you white, racist, foo? I’m the man here!”
“You’re kidding, right? We know you gots nachral rhythm, however, I have the microphone!”
If student debt is such a concern for democrats, then why doesn’t Warren, Sanders ,and the all rest of them donate some of their collective millions and pay off that debt themselves and leave the rest of us alone. They are some of the wealthiest members of Congress don’t you know. How could I even suggest such a thing! l’m such a terrible person to suggest that what was I thinking? We all know they don’t freely give their money, they freely give our money from the taxes we pay, and pat themselves on the back to show how caring and generous they are.
OR better yet, START TELLING KIDS “You don’t need a useless college degree to get ahead in life.. GET A TRADE or something actually USEFUL!”
Great idea – let those who actually have jobs in this blue collar economy pay for those who got to attend Ivy League and other elite universities for degrees in Social Studies, Humanities, Social Justice, Art History, etc. since they can’t afford “$300/month” to satisfy their debts they willingly took on…it’s the American Way.
Seriously, let the IRS take over collection of those debts since Lunch bucket Joey from Scranton wants to add 10,000 more jobs to that department.
Why stop with student loans? Why not pay off all federal mortgage loans too? Hell, just pay off all of everybody’s loans. Is Warren and the rest of the liberal socialists really as stupid as they appear?
HEll, i’d love to see my mortgage get paid off.. BUT as i am a white male Conservative, i have to DO THAT MYSELF.
In the wise words or similar saying by Judge Judy: “You ate the steak, you pay for it”. I know many successful business people who worked at 2 or even 3 jobs to get the best education and now are reaping the rewards. Some were/are just plain lazy to “earn” their degree but leached off others and now want to be relieved of their obligation to pay it back. I sure would not hire anyone like that as they cannot be trusted to honor their obligations.
AND with the # of these useless ‘graduates’ who have to go BACK TO SCHOOL TO learn basic math/writing/reading, after being hired, it makes ME WONDER< WHY WOULD ANY SANE BUSINESS even hire some college puke anymore.
Miss Potato Head and Miss Potato Brain.