Only a few days after presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren released her plan of canceling up to $50,000 for each person student loan debt, Bernie Sanders decided it was time for him to jump in as well. Also a 2020 presidential candidate, Sanders has had a lot to say about this debt problem. His solution is even broader than Warren’s and cancels a lot more student debt.
While Warren only wants to focus on the lower- and middle-class Americans, leaving the rich to fend for themselves, Sanders wants to wipe out the entire $1.5 trillion enchilada with one fell swoop. This plan is a lot deeper than a lot of the other proposals made by other presidential candidates. But make no mistake, all the 2020 hopefuls have their own ideas.
The Washington Post first outlined his proposal that hopes to wipe out every dollar of student loan debt. That means all of the 46 million Americans with student loan debt would walk away absolutely scot-free. This is certainly a very interesting concept that has a lot of Americans paying attention.
“In a generation hard hit by the Wall Street crash of 2008, it forgives all student debt and ends the absurdity of sentencing an entire generation to a lifetime of debt for the ‘crime’ of getting a college education,” Sanders stated in remarks prepared for a Monday news conference detailing the proposal. Other Democrats, including Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) and Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA), support this proposal.
Canceling Student Loan Debt for Americans
The cancellation of student loan debt will have a large and sweeping impact on the US economy. The problem with student loan debt as of late has been rising tuition as well as the number of Americans who immediately leave college and are burdened with additional payments equivalent to paying down rent or an expensive auto loan.
The average former student pays as much as $3000 per year. This prevents them from being able to invest money in other things. In fact, mind Americans blame student loan debt for their inability to rejoin the rest of society. Paying off so much debt that they’re unable to afford insurance, to save money, and it’s even forcing them to push off major life decisions.
Of course, the way Sanders plans on paying for this that is very Bernie Sanders. He plans on going after the rich and taxing them to give a 100% clean slate to everyone with student loan debt. “We bailed out Wall Street in 2008,” the senator tweeted early Monday morning. “It’s time to tax Wall Street’s greed to help the American people.”
Currently in the United States, 46 million people owe $1.5 trillion in student loan debt. This is a number that it is going to continue to increase as tuition grows each year. New numbers will be updated this fall, so we could be looking at a brand-new record. 11% of the student loan debt out there is facing serious delinquency. 40% is expected to be in default in the next five years.
Other Candidates Support Student Loan Forgiveness
Just about every other Democratic candidate has come out in favor of some type of student loan forgiveness. Julián Castro is one of those candidates. He isn’t making any the same headlines that Warren and Sanders are making, but really agrees with them that the government needs to do more to protect American citizens.
“The federal government has failed to adequately step in to support students and universities — pushing more and more students towards costly loans that can at times be predatory,” Castro wrote on his website. “Make no mistake: this is a crisis. More and more students are defaulting on their loans, tanking their credit for years to come. It’s time we break the work-school tug of war.”
This is a major crisis in our country and our president has done nothing to help combat it. In fact, he has even attempted to remove the current student loan programs out there that help students who are struggling to pay back their loans. President Trump feels as if it’s not fair to put the burden of a person’s decision to go to college on the backs of American taxpayers.
