Democrats push back after Biden says he can’t cancel $50,000 in student loan debt

Some Democrats have pushed back on President Joe Biden’s rejection of the plan to cancel $50,000 in student loan debt.

Biden was asked about the proposal, introduced by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York on Feb. 4, that calls on Biden to forgive student loan debt through executive action.

“I will not make that happen,” Biden said during the CNN town hall Tuesday night.

Biden added that debt forgiveness should be based “on whether or not you go to a private university or a public university” and that community college tuition should be free. He also emphasized that he doesn’t think it’s within a president’s power to act unilaterally to cancel that much debt.

“My point is: I understand the impact of debt, and it can be debilitating,” Biden said. “I am prepared to write off the $10,000 debt but not [$50,000], because I don’t think I have the authority to do it.”

Schumer and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat said they will keep urging Biden to cancel student debt, noting that former presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump used executive orders to cancel some debt.

“Canceling $50,000 in federal student loan debt will help close the racial wealth gap, benefit the 40% of borrowers who do not have a college degree, and help stimulate the economy. It’s time to act. We will keep fighting,” they said in a statement.

More Democratic lawmakers also responded to Biden’s remarks on Twitter.

“We’ve got the Senate Majority Leader on board to forgive $50k. Biden’s holding back, but many of the arguments against it just don’t hold water on close inspection.,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez wrote on Wednesday. “We can and should do it.”

Rep. Ayanna Pressley tweeted: “Yes, [President Biden] does have the authority to #CancelStudentDebt with the stroke of a pen. He can and must use it. The people deserve nothing less.”

“As a young immigrant, I took out thousands of dollars in debt to go to for-profit college—thinking it was part of the American Dream,” Rep. Ilhan Omar wrote on Twitter. “Like millions of Americans, I was left deeply in debt with a worthless degree and shoddy education.”

Sen. Ed Markey tweeted Wednesday: “Joe Biden has the authority to issue an executive order that will cancel $50,000 of student loan debt for every borrower. It will be an act of justice, economic stimulus, and urgently needed relief all at once and I urge him to act now.”

This isn’t the first time Biden has expressed skepticism about his presidential authority.

“That’s different than my saying, and I’m going to get in trouble for saying this . . . for example, it’s arguable that the president may have the executive power to forgive up to $50,000 in student debt,” Biden told The Washington Post in December before he took office. “Well, I think that’s pretty questionable. I’m unsure of that. I’d be unlikely to do that.”

Schumer and Warren have asserted that Biden can use an “existing authority under the Higher Education Act” to cancel debt.

Education Department officials under Trump’s administration released a memo in January arguing that the agency doesn’t have that power.

The memo states that “the Secretary does not have statutory authority to provide blanket or mass cancellation, compromise, discharge, or forgiveness of student loan principal balances, and/or to materially modify the repayment amounts or terms thereof, whether due to the COVID-19 pandemic or for any other reason.”

Former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos had called the proposals to cancel federal student loan debt “crazy.”

“Their proposals are crazy,” DeVos told Fox News in 2019. “Who do they think is actually going to pay for these? It’s going to be two of the three Americans that aren’t going to college paying for the one out of three that do.”

This story was originally published February 17, 2021 at 2:20 PM with the headline "Democrats push back after Biden says he can’t cancel $50,000 in student loan debt."