AP Photo/Susan Walsh
President Joe Biden is mulling over forgiving a minimum of $10,000 in student loan debt per borrower via execution action, according to individuals with knowledge of the matter who spoke to Bloomberg.
A sweeping debt-forgiveness effort by Biden would represent a massive turnaround from the decidedly cautious approach he has taken on the issue since entering the White House last year. And it would also present a economic and ideological dilemma for the administration, as deficit hawks sense that broad cancellation may worsen inflation issues while many liberal allies might feel that the president's efforts don't go far enough.
Per Bloomberg, nothing concrete has been finalized yet, but any cancellation plan that emerges is likely to be oriented toward lower-income and middle-class Americans, per individuals with knowledge of the talks.
Biden recently laid out some of his conditions for any potential plan, reiterating his opposition to eliminating around $50,000 in student debt per borrower, a longstanding wish that many lawmakers — including Sens. Chuck Schumer of New York and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, along with Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts — have asked the administration to fulfill.
"I am considering dealing with some [student] debt reduction," Biden remarked at the White House on Thursday. "I am not considering $50,000 debt reduction but I'm in the process of taking a hard look at whether there will be additional debt forgiveness. I'll have an answer for that in the next couple of weeks."
The Washington Post recently reported that the administration was floating a plan to exclude high earners from any debt cancellation framework that might be crafted by the administration, with senior aides mulling over limiting relief to individual borrowers who made less than $125,000 or $150,000 last year, while setting a limit of $250,000 or $300,000 for joint filers.
If Biden wiped out $10,000 in student loan debt for each borrower, the total would amount to roughly $245 billion, according to the nonprofit Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.
The Biden administration earlier this month extended the federal pause on student-loan repayments for a fourth time — through August 31 — giving borrowers four additional months from the previous May 1 restart date.
However, progressive Democrats have pressed for more aggressive action on the issue for over a year now, arguing that the president has broad latitude to eliminate student debt. Many lawmakers have become increasingly concerned that Biden's inaction on student-loan cancellation will lead to sagging turnout this fall among younger voters — many of whom were drawn to the candidacy of independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont because of this very issue.
Sanders on Wednesday said that Biden should eliminate "all student debt in all of America."
Democratic Rep. Mondaire Jones of New York told Bloomberg that while he feels that the president should eliminate more than the $10,000 baseline reportedly under consideration, "even $10,000 would be transformational for millions of Americans."
However, moderate Democrats have been less vocal about large-scale cancellation plans — with Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia telling reporters last week that he was unsure about "just writing it off completely" — while Republicans overwhelmingly oppose relief plans, alleging that the administration's potential actions would benefit upper-class voters at the expense of individuals from lower incomes.
Biden in recent months has seen his support among millennials and Generations X and Z decline precipitously compared to his stronger standing with the silent generation and baby boomers.
