“President Biden, we agree that we shouldn’t cancel $50,000 in student loan debt. We should cancel all of it. $50,000 was just the bottom line. For the Black community, who’ve accumulated debt over generations of oppression, anything less is unacceptable,” NAACP’s Wisdom Cole said in a statement.
Burdened | Black college graduates owe an average of $25,000 more in student loan debt than White graduates; 29% of Blacks owe at least $350 a month
When asked if she’d be supportive of Biden canceling just $10,000 per borrower in debt, Warren told reporters Thursday she would “not negotiate against” herself.
“We picked the number $50,000 because it does the most to help close the racial wealth gap, the gender wealth gap and promote equality of opportunity throughout the country,” Warren said Thursday.
Progressives spent Thursday praising Biden for engaging in a conversation.
Representative Mondaire Jones, a New York progressive Democrat, said while he thinks that Biden should cancel more, “even $10,000 would be transformational for millions of Americans.”
Moderate Democratic Senator Joe Manchin told reporters Wednesday that something needs to be done to provide relief on student loan debt, but he has concerns about “just writing it off completely.”
Republicans are arguing student debt forgiveness costs the government too much money and would add to inflation. GOP Senators John Thune, Richard Barr, Mike Braun, Bill Cassidy and Roger Marshall introduced a bill that would ban the president from canceling outstanding federal student loan debt due to a national emergency.
“After a huge increase in our national debt, thanks to the pandemic and reckless Democratic spending, the government does not need to be forgoing billions of dollars by providing student loan relief to Americans,” Thune said Wednesday.
A White House spokesperson said the administration’s actions, so far, on student debt have resulted in the approval of more than $17 billion in discharges to over 700,000 borrowers, plus tens of billions more saved by the 41 million borrowers who have benefited from the extended student loan payment pause.
--With assistance from Steven T. Dennis, Zach C. Cohen, Erik Wasson, Laura Litvan and Alex Tanzi.
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.