After months of internal debates and in the midst of the campaign for the midterm elections, US President Joe Biden announced this Wednesday (24) that he will forgive part of the debt for training university students to the government. Republicans, however, denounce the “gift” given to Americans as an unfair and electoral measure.
About 43 million Americans have student loan debt. On average, each of them owes 37 thousand dollars (almost 189 thousand reais). The total student debt in the United States is 1.6 trillion dollars (more than 8 trillion reais).
Following election promises from two years ago, Biden announced that up to $20,000 (more than 100,000 reais) will be deducted from the debts of students or former students in the federal education system who have an individual annual income of up to $125,000 (about of 638 thousand reais) or a family member of twice that amount.
“My administration is announcing a plan to give working and middle class families some breathing room,” Biden said on Twitter.
Opposition to Biden points out that the president’s project is unfair, because millions of Americans do not go to college because they cannot commit to these debts.
“The millions of Americans who graduated from college, lived modestly, and forgo fancy dinners and vacations so they could properly pay off debt are wondering why they won’t get that discount,” says Lindsey Burke, director of the Center for Educational Policy at Heritage Foundation, in an article published in the Daily Signal.
She points to data presented by Clinton-era Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers that show that Biden’s initiative will have inflationary effects, especially in the rise of university tuition. Federal subsidies have allowed colleges to raise prices over the past few decades and further strain the government. Since the 1991 school year, total federal aid (including student loans and grants) has increased by 295%.
In an article published in the American newspaper National Review, the writer Charles Cooke questions why this “forgiveness” is not also directed to other professionals and other types of debts of citizens. “Because Joe Biden and his party believe that college students are better than everyone else,” quips Cooke.
Public policy analyst Inez Stepman comments, in a video published by the portal PragerU, that Biden’s measure “is like taking from the poor and giving to the rich”. About 70% of this debt relief benefits the 20% of students from higher-income families who were able to commit to these debts. According to Stepman, Biden’s plan “steals from the working class” to give alms “to woke culture”.
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