Biden Balks At $50,000 Student Loan Debt Forgiveness Proposal

Biden Balks At $50,000 Student Loan Debt Forgiveness Proposal

President Joe Biden on Tuesday balked at a proposal backed by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) to unilaterally cancel $50,000 in student loan debt per borrower.

“I will not make that happen,” Biden said when asked at a Milwaukee town hall hosted by CNN Tuesday night if he would take executive action on loan forgiveness beyond the $10,000 his administration has already proposed.

“I'm prepared to write off the $10,000 debt, but not $50,000, because I don't think I have the authority to do it by signing” an executive order, he added. 

Biden also said he did not want the policy to disproportionately benefit high earners who went to elite colleges, a point Republicans have made in opposing the move.

In a joint statement Wednesday, Warren and Schumer urged Biden to reconsider, insisting that he does, in fact, have that authority. They cited past executive actions on student loan relief by former Presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump.

“The Biden administration has said it is reviewing options for canceling up to $50,000 in student debt by executive action,” the statement read, “and we are confident they will agree with the standards Obama and Trump used as well as leading