- Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez called out President Joe Biden's inaction on student-debt cancellation.
- "I can't underscore how much the hesitancy of the Biden Administration to pursue student-loan cancellation has demoralized a very critical voting block."
- Democrats have urged Biden to forgive $50,000 in student debt for every federal borrower.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in a new interview with the New Yorker criticized the Biden administration's inaction on broad student-debt relief.
The New York Democrat said student-loan cancellation is "one of the single most impactful things" President Joe Biden can do that would have wide-reaching effects.
"It's entirely within his power," Ocasio-Cortez said. "This really isn't a conversation about providing relief to a small, niche group of people. It's very much a keystone action politically. I think it's a keystone action economically as well."
She added that Biden's reluctance to issue broad student-debt forgiveness may cost him politically.
"I can't underscore how much the hesitancy of the Biden Administration to pursue student-loan cancellation has demoralized a very critical voting block that the President, the House, and the Senate need in order to have any chance at preserving any of our majority," the lawmaker told the New Yorker.
Roughly 45 million Americans owe $1.7 trillion in student debt. It's the second-highest source of debt in the United States, following mortgages.
On the 2020 campaign trail, Biden pledged he'd seek an immediate cancelation of at least $10,000 in student debt per federal borrower. Since taking office, his administration has called on Congress to draft the measure into a bill for him to sign into law.
Like Ocasio-Cortez, several Democrats have argued that Biden can act on his own executive authority to address student debt. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, two leading advocates for student-debt cancelation, have routinely called on Biden to use his power to forgive $50,000 for every federal borrower.
Biden has questioned his legal ability to take such sweeping action to tackle the student debt crisis. He directed the Education Department last April to provide him a memo examining the issue. Documents obtained by the Debt Collective, the nation's first debtors' union, found the agency completed the memo that same month, but the White House has yet to release its results.