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President Biden has given his strongest indication so far at a private meeting with Democrats in the House of Representatives that he is ready to take significant action to ease student loans, a move that could include canceling tens of thousands of dollars of debt for some people.
Borrowers are currently taking advantage of the moratorium on student loan payments, which runs until August 31, a pause caused by a pandemic that began under the Trump administration. The White House has come under significant pressure from the Liberal Wing of the Democratic Party to rescind its obligations altogether, instead of extending the moratorium repeatedly, as it has done so far.
However, Biden and centrist Democrats have expressed skepticism about the wisdom of burdening taxpayers with the debt of students who have voluntarily taken out loans to attend expensive private universities. To address such concerns, Biden’s move could be targeted at lower- and middle-income borrowers.
During a lengthy meeting with members of the Spanish Congressional Group on Monday, Biden repeatedly signaled that he was ready not only to extend the current moratorium, but also to potentially take enforcement action to cancel the debt altogether, according to two House members present. and two assistants briefed on the content of the meeting.
Representative Tony Cardenas (D-California) initially raised the issue with Biden during the meeting. In an interview, Cardenas said he first asked the president to extend the moratorium beyond its current expiration date of August 31, and Biden replied with a smile, “Well, Tony, I extended it every time.”
Cardenas said he then called on the president to issue an executive order to alleviate at least $ 10,000 in student loans. Presenting his thesis, Cardenas said he told Biden that Latinos in the United States who have student debt still have more than 80 percent of their bill due after more than a dozen years.
Biden was “incredibly positive” about the idea, Cardenas said.
Another MP present, MP Darren Soto (D-Fla.), Said that Biden’s response to MPs’ demands to cancel at least part of the student debt was essentially that he would like to do so sooner rather than later. late. The president suggested that he wanted to take executive action as soon as possible, telling Spanish lawmakers that they would be very pleased with what he was doing next, according to aides informed of the meeting.
Such a move could be a popular selling point for Democrats in the upcoming by-elections. However, Biden stressed that the timing of any message to ease the loan is sensitive, as he does not want to increase inflationary pressures.
The president suggested to lawmakers that he understands the burden of student loans on a personal level, as he recently completed the payment of his unpaid student debt to his late son Bo. Biden often raised this story in the wake of the campaign when discussing the issue with voters.
“I feel very confident that he is urging his team to do something and do something significant,” Cardenas said in an interview. “That’s my feeling.”
The problem of forgiving student loans has long been politically charged. Liberals argue that higher education should be relatively cheap for all, as in European countries. They argue that rising college costs are a major obstacle to social progress in the country.
But many conservatives oppose the idea that wealthier people who have chosen to attend expensive schools should have their debts written off, while those who have gone to cheaper schools or decided to drop out of college altogether , will receive little or no benefit.
The debate is also unfolding at a time when some Americans, especially in rural areas and at the conservative end of the political spectrum, are questioning the value and desirability of college education in the first place.
For most of his presidency, Biden was not hot on the idea of canceling student debt altogether. In an interview with New York Times columnist David Brooks last year, Biden reacted contemptuously to the idea, saying: “The idea that you go to Penn and pay a total of $ 70,000 a year and the public has to pay for it? I do not agree.”
The President also stressed that any debt relief plan will focus on lower-income and disadvantaged students.
During the presidential campaign, Biden wrote in a 2020 Medium publication that he preferred a plan to “forgive student debt for low-income and middle-class people who have attended public colleges and universities,” as well as historic black colleges and universities. or HBCU.
In the post, Biden spoke of “immediately canceling at least $ 10,000 in student debt per person,” adding that those earning less than $ 25,000 a year would not have to make monthly payments or charge interest.
Amid a continuing onslaught of pressure from influential Democrats, including Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (DN.Y.) and Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), The administration has never ruled out a broader agenda. loan forgiveness.
Sumer regularly tweeted the need to forgive student loans, tweeting messages such as “It’s time for President Biden to # cancel student debt for millions of Americans.”
White House officials recently said Biden would decide to cancel student loans before Aug. 31, when the current moratorium on loan payments expires. “What I would tell you is that no one in this country has paid a penny on federal student loans since the president took office,” White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said Monday.
However, about 7 million people on federal student loans are excluded from the break because their debt is held by private companies. The Biden administration has already canceled more than $ 17 billion in student loans to 725,000 borrowers through targeted relief, including for people with permanent disabilities and those cheated by their colleges.
The Latino group’s meeting on Monday was part of a series of meetings Biden held with various Democratic coalitions on Capitol Hill in recent weeks to discuss continuing the agenda with the help of executive action, as a number of his legislative initiatives failed.
Several senior White House officials and other administrative officials also attended the Spanish group’s meeting, including Home Affairs Chief Susan Rice, Director of the Office of Management and Budget Shalanda Young, Director of Political Strategy and Contact Amy Ruiz, and Deputy Secretary General of the White House Cristobal Alex and Louisa Terrell, director of legislative affairs, according to an administration official.
Daniel Douglas-Gabriel contributed to this report.
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