POLL: Majority of Americans want Biden to forgive student loans
A CNBC poll found that more than half of Americans want Biden to fulfill his campaign promise to cancel student loans.
After more than a year in office, Biden has yet to fulfill his campaign promise to forgive up to $10,000 in loan debt per borrower.
A recent CNBC poll found that more than half (57%) of Americans want Biden to prioritize student loan forgiveness.
In March of 2020, while campaigning to be president, Joe Biden promised up to $10,000 of student loan forgiveness per borrower.
But just over one year into his Presidency, Biden has yet to make good on this proposal. Moreover, Biden has avoided questions on student loans from White House press reporters, and White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki danced around a reporter’s question on whether Biden’s failure to act on student loan forgiveness could hurt Democrats in the 2022 midterms.
Instead, Psaki pivoted to touting the freeze on loan payments that the Biden administration implemented.
[RELATED: REPORT: Baker College spends more money on marketing than financial aid]
She then claimed, “If Congress sends him a bill to cancel $10,000 in student debt, he’d be happy to sign that into law.”
As of September 2021, Americans owe a collective $1.73 trillion in loan debt.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Biden instituted a freeze on federal student loans. In December 2021, he extended the freeze to May 2022 but told loan borrowers to prepare to resume payments when the freeze expires.
But merely freezing the loans has not satisfied his fellow Democrats.
Earlier this month, Campus Reform reported that over 80 lawmakers — including Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer — penned a letter to Biden urging him to outline the legal authority for student loan forgiveness after Education Secretary Miguel Cardona prepared such a memo last year.
The letter also called on Biden to up the $10,000 of forgiveness to $50,000, a move that would cost $1 trillion.
On January 20, Cardona claimed that the Biden Administration has already canceled $15 billion in student loans among 650,000 borrowers.
Follow @_addisonsmith1 on Twitter
