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President Joe Biden is planning to forgive $10,000 in student debt per borrower, a central campaign promise that would relieve debt for millions of Americans, The Washington Post reported. Biden’s proposal, however, is still not finalized.
The announcement of the president’s plan to address the $1.7 trillion currently owed to the federal government in student debt had been speculated by many to come as soon as this Saturday, when Biden will be making a commencement speech at the University of Delaware. According to the Post, the timing of the announcement has been delayed after the mass shooting in Texas on Tuesday.
The plans in discussion call for limiting debt forgiveness to Americans who earned less than $150,000 in the previous year, or less than $300,000 for married couples filing jointly, according to the reporting in the Post.
The White House has denied that it has any set plans to forgive student debt and said it had not made a final decision.
“No decisions have been made yet — but as a reminder, no one has been required to pay a single dime of student loans since the President took office,” a White House spokesman told CNBC.
The average student debt balance is over $30,000, and more than 3 million borrowers owe more than $100,000.
NAACP President Derrick Johnson said $10,000 “won’t do anything” for the Black community.
“The average Black borrower has $53,000 in student loan debt four years after graduation, nearly twice the amount as their white counterparts,” Johnson said in a statement.
“Ten thousand dollars in cancellation would be a slap in the face,” he said. “President Biden, it’s not about whether you can do it; it’s about whether or not you have the will to do it.”
Progressive Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York said on Twitter of the $10,000 plan, “We can do better.”
“$10k means tested forgiveness is just enough to anger the people against it *and* the people who need forgiveness the most. $10k relieves most the people who owe the least. What relief is there for the most desperate? For them, interest will undo that 10k fast. We can do better.”
$10k means tested forgiveness is just enough to anger the people against it *and* the people who need forgiveness the most.
$10k relieves most the people who owe the least. What relief is there for the most desperate? For them, interest will undo that 10k fast. We can do better. https://t.co/HhfWbeCf0v
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) May 27, 2022
