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After news came out that President Joe Biden is planning to announce another extension of the pause on student-loan payments this week, a leading Republican lawmaker was quick to criticize the measure.
"Hardworking taxpayers are fed up with having their backs broken by this administration," top Republican on the House education committee Virginia Foxx said in a statement. "The outrageous extension of this moratorium contradicts the administration's promise to the American public and without any basis other than the President's sinking poll numbers," she added, likely referring to promises in protecting taxpayers.
On Tuesday, multiple outlets including the Associated Press confirmed that Biden will announce his fourth extension of the pause on student-loan payments, keeping the moratorium through August 31. This comes just days before the previous pause was set to expire on May 1, and Democratic lawmakers have been ramping up pressure for weeks to urge Biden to not only extend the pause, but to cancel some amount of student debt.
Despite Democrats' calls, though, Republicans have urged the opposite. Foxx has consistently argued that extending the pause would hurt the economy and stick taxpayers with the costs of the relief, and she said in her Tuesday statement that this is not the time for another pause on payments amid "skyrocketing inflation."
"This isn't about the pandemic, this isn't about targeted relief for struggling borrowers, it's about setting the stage for blanket loan forgiveness," she said.
Some of her colleagues have joined in, as well. GOP Reps. Jim Banks and Bob Good recently introduced legislation to block the Education Secretary from carrying out another extension of the payment pause, and all Republicans on the House education committee released a statement last month calling broad loan forgiveness measures "reckless" and "short-sighted."
While Foxx is worried about the path toward broad student-debt forgiveness, Democrats are looking forward to it — and are hopeful Biden will make it happen. New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said on Twitter on Tuesday that extending the pause on payments isn't the solution.
"We should cancel them," she said.
Democratic lawmakers and advocates have also remained firm in their messaging that broad student-loan relief will boost the economy, contrary to the GOP argument. Insider previously reported that the economy has been doing fine without student debt payments over the past two years, and the New York Fed recently found the pause has saved 37 million borrowers $195 billion — money that many borrowers say they cannot afford to give up.
