- GOP Sen. Tom Cotton said that another student-loan payment pause extension is "a terrible idea."
- He added that broad loan relief will cost taxpayers — a notion other GOP lawmakers have referenced.
- But Democratic lawmakers maintain that student-debt cancellation will stimulate the economy.
Student-loan payments are set to resume in just over two months, and it has borrowers wondering if Biden might grant them yet another extension of the payment pause. But a Republican lawmaker does not want to see that happen.
"The Biden Administration is considering extending the student loan moratorium. This is a terrible idea," Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton wrote on Twitter last week.
—Tom Cotton (@TomCottonAR) February 15, 2022
He added that the student-loan payment pauses will "put taxpayers on the hook for trillions" while allowing college graduates to avoid paying the debt they owe.
Student loan payments have been on pause since March 2020 as part of the pandemic relief measures implemented by both President Donald Trump and President Joe Biden. Biden extended the pause for a third time under his leadership in December, through May 1, and many Democratic lawmakers and advocates argue that if the relief can continue being extended, there's no reason why Biden cannot wipe out the $1.7 trillion student-debt crisis altogether. But Cotton, and other Republican lawmakers, feel otherwise.
North Carolina Rep. Virginia Foxx — the top Republican on the House Committee of Education and Labor — said in January that "Biden's latest extension is a troubling trend toward blanket student loan forgiveness, which would be a massive mistake, with major consequences for borrowers and taxpayers."
She cited the $150 billion cost to taxpayers that accompanied Biden's additional extension of the payment pause and said the president is acting to "satisfy the progressive wing of the Democrat party—this political theater is unacceptable."
In a different tweet last week, Cotton referenced the "political theater" and said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer — a leading advocate for $50,000 in student-debt cancellation per borrower — will keep wearing his "cancel student debt" face mask "until Biden does it or New York's primary filing deadline passes—whichever comes first."
Indeed, student debt cancellation is a big election issue and some Democrats have expressed concerns about their success at the polls if it doesn't happen. New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez previously said it's "delusional" to think Democrats can win without acting on progressive priorities, like student-loan relief, and some voters themselves have expressed disappointment with the lack of action on the issue.
Despite GOP pushback on broad student-loan relief, many Democrats maintain the notion that student-debt cancellation will stimulate the economy and help low-income borrowers the most. Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren told Insider last year that "knocking tens of millions of people out of being able to participate in that economy, taking money out of their pockets — money that they spend in local stores and money they spend to keep this economy going — is not helpful."
And Marshall Steinbaum, senior fellow at the Jain Family Institute and economics professor at the University of Utah, previously told Insider that the economy has been "more than fine" without student debt payments.
"This is basically a kind of ball and chain around a lot of people's ankles that was lifted at the start of the pandemic," Steinbaum said. "And I suspect that it's had a major positive effect on their financial well being and their purchasing power."