(DailyVantage.com) – While Republicans understandably have their reasons for opposing President Joe Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan, a number of Democrats have also taken issue with the latest iteration of one of the president’s pet initiatives.
Their complaint is that the debt forgiveness plan isn’t expansive enough.
Democratic senators Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, along with New York senator and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York, sent a letter to Education Secretary Miguel Cardona claiming that the new student loan forgiveness plan “would fall far short” of what “low- and middle-income Americans urgently need” in terms of canceling their student loans.
Democratic California Senator Alex Padilla, as well as Democratic representatives Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, and Frederica Wilson of Florida, also signed their names to the letter.
The signatories have called for an expansion of who qualifies for student debt relief and are also asking for an increase in the amount of debt that will be forgiven.
A spokesperson for the Education Department said that it has received the letter and that it welcomes input from legislators on the issue. Moreover, the agency said that it is one with progressives in wanting to “fix the broken student loan system” as well as provide relief to borrowers, especially those who have “been failed by the country’s broken student loan system.”
President Biden has been persistent in his efforts to secure student loan forgiveness all throughout his tenure in the White House. However, he has faced strong opposition at every step, and in June, the Supreme Court struck down a more expansive version of a student debt relief initiative, deeming it “unconstitutional.” So far, the president has utilized the existing authority of the Department of Education to clear $132 billion worth of student debt, which has benefited 3.6 million Americans so far.
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