In a new interview, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York) said that President Joe Biden’s top priority should be to use his executive powers to cancel student debt as the rest of his agenda is stalled in the Senate.
Speaking with The New Yorker, Ocasio-Cortez said that canceling student debt would be a “keystone action” for the administration, both politically and economically, and that Biden should be bolder in exercising his executive authority.
When Biden was asked to respond to the Senate gridlock created by conservative Democrats, she said, “One of the single most impactful things President Biden can do is pursue student loan cancellation. It’s entirely within his power.”
Ocasio Cortez stated that student debt cancellation would be a huge help to large swathes, and warned that Biden could lose important voters if it is not done.
“This really isn’t a conversation about providing relief to a small, niche group of people,” she said. “And I can’t underscore how much the hesitancy of the Biden Administration to pursue student loan cancellation has demoralized a very critical voting block that the President, the House, and the Senate need in order to have any chance at preserving any of our majority.”
Ocasio Cortez later in the interview warned that the country’s democracy could be at risk due to current political infighting. “My concern is that we’re getting into analysis paralysis, and we don’t have much time. We should really not take this present political moment for granted, and do everything that we can,” she said.
Biden had pledged on the campaign trail to cancel $10,000 in student debt per borrower. His administration has been slow to act on the issue despite having pledged to cancel up to $10,000 of student debt per borrower. legal experts sayBiden has the authority and power to ease student loans. This has been a huge disappointment to Democratic lawmakers and debt activists. have speculated that Biden simply doesn’t want to cancel student debt, despite the vast popularity of the idea among his party.
The prominent members of Congress, including Senate Majority leader Chuck Schumer (D–New York), Have been campaigningFor Cancellation of student loansBiden for more than a decade now. Schumer rallied with activists said last weekHe was confident that the push will succeed.
The electorate is open to the idea of cancelling student debt. Recent polling from Data for Progress foundThe likelihood of voters supporting cancelling student debt for borrowers is 63 per cent. The idea is especially popular among Democrats, with a staggering 88 percent of respondents saying they support cancelling student debt.
38 percent of Democratic voters also voted for the federal government to eliminate student debt for all borrowers. This measure is more than the $10,000- $50,000 debt cancellation that some Democrats have proposed. Debt activists and more radical lawmakers, like Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont), have pushed for the cancellation of all student debt.
Cancel it. Every penny. https://t.co/oiwPxi9xRO
— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) February 15, 2022
Student loan activists are encouraged to get involved with student debt activism, as student loan payments will resume in May. are planning a day of action in April to urge Biden to “pick up the pen” and cancel student debt.
“All President Biden has to do to cancel student debt is sign an executive order,” said Debt Collective co-founder Astra Taylor in a statement. “He made a promise on the campaign trail and debtors are going to make sure he keeps it. Turning student debt payments on in the middle of a public health emergency and an election year would be both cruel and politically suicidal and debtors won’t stand for it.”
