Ben Ritz, Director of the Progressive Policy Institute’s (PPI) Center for Funding America’s Future, released the following statement in response to the Biden Administration’s announcement of another extension of the student loan repayment pause:
“Extending the pause on student debt repayments and interest accrual, which was first enacted in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, demonstrates a lack of concern about the squeeze that rising prices are putting on American families, especially those who don’t have the higher incomes associated with a college education. Even the administration has admitted that continuing the pause worsens inflation when they announced their previous plan to bring it to an end this year.
“We understand that the court challenges facing the president’s legally dubious attempt to cancel up to $20,000 of debt for some borrowers creates undue uncertainty for them. The White House should have considered the likely – and now ongoing – legal fight over this policy before promising debt cancellation to tens of millions of people. Regardless, there is no reason high-income individuals not eligible for debt cancellation under the president’s plan, or those who have balances of more than $20,000, should be exempt from repaying balances that have no chance of being canceled even if the administration prevails in court.
“The administration says repayments will resume ‘no later than’ August 30th. But every time they have said that in the past, they have kicked the can down the road. This shortsighted fiscal policy must come to an end. Democrats and Republicans in the next Congress must work together on a bipartisan basis to curtail the limited debt modification authority this administration has brazenly abused and replace it with real solutions to control the skyrocketing cost of higher education.”
