(RepublicanInformer.com)- President Joe Biden is set to announce that the federal government will once again extend the pause on federal student loan payments through the end of August.
But, even though that will provide significant financial relief to thousands of people in the country, that’s not going far enough for one ultra-progressive member of the House.
This week, Democratic Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York said she was not happy about Biden’s planned extension. She believes that the federal government should instead be cancelling this student debt altogether.
She took to Twitter to express her dissatisfaction, writing on Tuesday:
“I think some folks read these extensions as savvy politics, but I don’t think those folks understand the panic and disorder it causes people to get so close to these deadlines just to extend the uncertainty. It doesn’t have the affect (sic) people think it does.”
Like many of her ultra-progressive colleagues in the House, AOC believes that the federal government should cancel all federal student loan debt. That would be quite the social spending program, as it would cost the federal government loads of money.
The U.S. has been putting the repayment of all these federal student loan programs on hold since the outset of the pandemic in March of 2020. It was first initiated under former President Donald Trump and has been extended many times under both Trump and Biden.
Before Biden announced this latest extension, the repayment plans were set to start up against as of May 1. Many Democratic lawmakers were pleading with Biden to extend the repayment plans, as many people around the country aren’t yet ready financially to take on that burden once again.
One of the points AOC made in her tweet is that constantly waiting until the last minute to pass these extensions is causing a lot of stress on people who have these student loans. They’re forced to deal with a lot of “limbo and uncertainty” as they wonder whether they’re going to have to fit large student loan repayments back into their budget.
But, she didn’t stop there. She wants the president to cancel all student loans from the federal government altogether. AOC and some of her Democratic colleagues have been calling on the president to cancel all this student loan debt.
While campaigning for president, Biden promised that he would cancel $10,000 in student loan debt for every borrower of federal loans, but he hasn’t done that as of yet.
To shift blame for that, the president has said that it’s Congress’ job to pass such legislation, and that he would sign a bill like that if they sent one to his desk.
The White House hasn’t commented further on whether student relief debt is coming or not.
This has angered some advocates such as Natalia Abrams, who is the founder and president of the Student Debt Crisis Center. In a statement released this week, she said the president’s “piecemeal, short-term approach is not enough to meet these challenging times.”
She continued:
“The President has an opportunity to pass bold, meaningful relief instead of band-aid measures. We urge the President to consider the transformative effect permanent student debt cancellation would have for individuals, their families and the economy.”
