President Joe Biden was cautioned against enacting a large-scale student loan forgiveness program by Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and first lady Jill Biden but encouraged to press forward by Vice President Kamala Harris and top Democratic senators, according to a new report.
Biden announced a sweeping debt cancellation plan on Wednesday that would forgive $10,000 in federal student loans from borrowers with less than $125,000 in annual income, as well as $20,000 for borrowers who had Pell grants, a program targeted toward low-income students. Additionally, he extended the moratorium on federal student loan payments to Dec. 31.
Since announcing his run for president in early 2019, Biden has faced a full court press by leading Democrats and activists to support forgiving student debt. The problem they faced: Biden had long said he did not believe a president had the authority to cancel any federal debt without Congress. Even after his election victory, the president expressed repeated concerns to those in his orbit about issues of fairness and the potential that this was an overreach of his executive authority.
Biden was not alone in having concerns, according to a report published Friday by the New York Times. Yellen was skeptical of such debt cancellation, especially as the Federal Reserve was working to decrease inflation. Top Democratic economists echoed Yellen’s concerns.
The first lady, who works as a community college professor, has long been a staunch advocate of free community college. She has not, however, spoken out on student debt relief. The New York Times reported that Mrs. Biden was “uncomfortable” with the move, citing people close to her.
A White House spokesman denied that either of the Bidens, as well as senior advisers, had been reluctant to get on board, saying in a statement: “As the president’s own public comments from 2020 show, he didn’t just support debt cancellation from the start, he ran on it.”
Aides to the president told the paper that the key to convincing the president was “making sure debt relief would target much of the money to lower-income and minority students.” Doing so showcased his desire to “be seen as an advocate of the middle class,” the outlet wrote.
On the other end of the spectrum was the vice president, one of the most ardent backers of the effort. Back in February, Harris had staffers draft a memo listing the president’s concerns and addressing them one by one, the Times reported.
As a counter to Biden’s reservations about the plan benefiting “private elite schools,” Harris’s team noted that “only 0.3 percent of federal loan borrowers attended Ivy League schools,” according to the report. Regarding his belief that student loan debt can only be relieved by Congress, the Harris memo stated that the pause on most federal student loan payments due to COVID-19 was approved by executive order.
Read the full story in Washington Examniner
