According to his aides, President-elect Joe Biden will ask Congress to immediately cancel $10,000 in student debt for all borrowers. He is also asking the newly democrat controlled congress to extend the payment pause of student loans that were included in the 2020 CARES act. That extension is scheduled to end this month.
Biden promised on the campaign trail that he would do exactly this, and now that he has a democrat-controlled congress it is very likely to happen. In a recent Pew survey, 6 in 10 borrowers stated that it would be hard for them to start paying their student loans back at the current deadline. The vast majority, roughly 90%, made sure to use the federal student loan option to pause their payments during the pandemic, data shows. It is up to Congress to determine how long to extend the payment pause.
Although this is a step in the progressive direction, far-left democrats are applying pressure on Biden to cancel student loan debt outright. This has been an argument stirring within the democrat ranks for years now, with politicians like Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez backing massive student loan forgiveness programs. Biden will be playing a balancing act between his more moderate instincts and base, and the constant pressure from far-left democrats.
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