It Took Joe Biden, Career Centrist, to Cancel Student Debt..

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'It Took Joe Biden, Career Centrist, to Cancel Student Debt The left can claim a qualified victory.'

There are enough reasons to decry Joe Biden’s somewhat belated decision to cancel some student-loan debt. Biden took until August of his second year as president and didn’t come close to delivering on his original campaign promise. There are plenty of non-wealthy Americans who hold far more than the debt Biden would relieve, who are desperate to escape burdens that will trail them for the rest of their lives. In limiting the scope of the cancellation, Biden may end up inflaming conservatives and moderates without getting the added benefit of firing up his base. The politics of the move are intriguing, if also perilous. The right-wing Supreme Court could shoot it all down.

The critics, on the left and right, are correct to argue that a limited debt cancellation will not reform the most galling practices of higher education. It will not force individual states or the federal government to subsidize public colleges and universities at the levels seen in the 20th century, when attending a state school in California or New York was effectively free. It will not pressure college administrators to curtail wasteful overhead or exorbitant tuition and fees. It certainly will not force rich colleges to start paying taxes on their endowments.

Yet it is important, amid all the hand-wringing, to pause and reflect on what Biden is actually trying to do. No other American president attempted to cancel student debt. No president attempted to unilaterally erase such significant amounts of money owed to lenders. Not since the Affordable Care Act, perhaps, has a president tried to deliver benefits so tangible. Voters often feel disconnected from government because even the big decisions or far-reaching policies take years to trickle down to them, to impact their lives directly, including Obamacare. Debt cancellation is very different. For individuals earning under $125,000, $10,000 will be wiped away. The $20,000 cancellation for those who had received Pell Grants for low-income families is even more significant. A generation of working-class Americans who did attend college — almost 40 percent of the nation has a college degree, and many more attempt to get one — will now find relief, a chance to start anew. Some may be able to afford down payments on homes. Others might pay off other bills or finally be able to build up a nest egg for retirement. This cannot be waved away, and shouldn’t be.

nymag.com/intelligencer/2022/08/bidens-student-loan-cancellation-is-a-huge-win-for-the-left.html