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FOX FIRST: Statements made by President Biden in Wisconsin last year created a tug-of-war between moderate and progressive Democrats over student debt forgiveness and forced some White House to clear the president’s remarks, according to an upcoming book by two New York Reporters Times.
Excerpt provided to Fox News from an upcoming book by Jonathan Martin and Alexander Burns, “This will not pass: Trump, Biden and the battle for the future of America“, Describes the troubled reaction of the progressives, after Biden made it clear that he is not open to the idea of forgiven much of the debt on student loans, especially for those who attend schools in the Ivy League.
President Biden attends CNN City Hall at the Pabst Theater in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, February 16, 2021 (Saul Loeb / AFP via Getty Images)
Speaking at the Milwaukee City Hall in February 2021, Biden rejected a request from a member of the public for his administration to forgive at least $ 50,000 in student loans to Americans across the country.
“I’m not going to make that happen,” Biden said. “It depends on whether you go to a private or a public university.
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According to the book, Biden, who told members of the public at the town hall that he was not interested in forgiving “billions of dollars in debt to people who went to Harvard, Yale and Penn”, apparently linked “huge debts to luxury universities”.
Biden’s comments sent his staff, including Chief of Staff Ron Klein, in a spiral as they tried to change what the president had said in an attempt to reassure the party’s progressive wing. The wing called on him to forgive more than the $ 10,000 he had originally promised, the authors explained.
Despite Biden’s own remarks, Klein, according to the book, spoke in private “with several supporters of debt cancellation in Congress to reassure them that his boss did not intend to take such a hard line.”
Ron Klein speaks at the House of Representatives subcommittee hearing in Washington, DC, on Tuesday, March 10, 2020 (Andrew Harr / Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“An MP talking to Ron Klein remembers how he gently said that sometimes Biden got a little involved in his public statements,” the authors wrote. “When a group of House progressives raised the issue with Klein in a meeting a few weeks later, the trusted aide hinted at Biden’s comments as a mistake.
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“We fixed that the next day, didn’t we?” Klein spoke of Biden’s remarks, according to a lawmaker’s memoir included in the book.
It was reported this week that Biden told members of Congress that he was considering options for forgiving student loans through executive action.
Earlier this week, the leader of the Senate majority Chuck SumerDN.Y. speculated that Biden was approaching the cancellation of student loan debt of up to $ 50,000 for borrowers.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, DN.Y., at the Capitol in Washington, DC, June 22, 2021 (AP Photo / J. Scott Applewhite)
“I will continue to call on the president to take this important step. And I tell my colleagues, I think the president is moving in our direction,” said Sumer of the Senate. “My conversations with him and his team have been very fruitful lately and I hope he will do the right thing. We are getting closer.”
Speaking about the break in loan payments, White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said on Tuesday that the president’s executive action was on the table.
“He will make a decision before this break is over,” Psaki said. “It is currently being extended until August… and it is considering other options for the executive branch.”
Progressives are urging Biden to forgive all student loan debt by executive order. They say that the devastating debt hanging over the heads of many graduates forces them to postpone important life decisions and that student debt disproportionately affects minorities.
White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki speaks at a White House briefing on March 4, 2022 (AP Photo / Carolyn Kaster)
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Payments from federal student loans were suspended for the first time in response to the economic consequences of ending the COVID-19 pandemic in May 2020 under former President Donald Trump. But as the economy emerged from the pandemic, Biden extended the break several times after taking office, drawing criticism from Republicans.
The book is expected to be released on May 3.
Paul Best and Tyler Olson of Fox News contributed to this article.
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