Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah), a more moderate Republican, jumped in as well, suggesting the move was little more than a political payout to win votes. “Other bribe suggestions: Forgive auto loans? Forgive credit card debt? Forgive mortgages?” he wrote on social media.
With Biden now moving closer to an executive order canceling some portion of student debt, Republicans are seizing on the issue to burnish their favored portrait of the two parties: Democrats, they say, champion the privileged elites, while Republicans support America’s down-to-earth workers. It’s a message that reflects the turbulent, risky politics of student debt for Biden, who has expressed both support and skepticism about student loan forgiveness.
Liberals respond that a sweeping loan cancellation program would provide critical help for struggling Latino, Black and young people amid a tough economy. Still, even some Democrats are wary of a critique that their party is aiming to help people who chose to take on debt at the expense of those who didn’t.
The issue of high college tuition costs emerged as a major plank in Sen. Bernie Sanders’s 2016 presidential campaign, when the progressive leader urged supporters at his campaign events to call out how much debt they were carrying. In the 2020 campaign,…
