Student loans. Medical Debt. An equitable fee. Cancel All.
While the American dream used to have a home on a white peacock fence, it is now out of debt. To many, the humble desire to borrow money seems unattainable. During his long tenure, Mr Biden has contributed to the crisis by working to strengthen the hands of lenders, including the anti-debt redress bill of 2005 which pushed back to protect borrowers.
The time has come for repairs. If Biden's management is determined to "build a better back," they must take decisive action. The country cannot afford to allow millions of struggling families to drown when old mountains of debt and rent suddenly drain when it is too late to pay and suspend evictions. The government can and must find ways to make the oppressive debt disappear.
Student loans, medical bills, utility bills, fines and criminal justice payments, and municipal debts all need to be documented or canceled altogether. I have written elsewhere about some of the different ways in which this can be done, and there are many other strategies available.
First, Mr Biden should honor his congressional campaign pledge to immediately erase student loan debt. There is no reason to hold back. Erasing the total student debt will improve the lives of nearly 45 million people, help reduce the racial economic gap and possibly win the majority of Republican voters ahead of time. Debt Collective, the credit union I helped myself to, has already drafted an order in which the president can sign tomorrow to do so - there is no need to involve Congress or legislate.
Next, he has to deal with medical bills. Following the lead of Senator Bernie Sanders' proposal, Democrats could eliminate medical debt in collections, including Covid's revenue. (At the very least, legislatures should protect lenders by ensuring that past hospital bills are not reported to indebted schools and make it difficult for collectors to track patients.)
Finally, elected officials also need to relieve tenants of the huge responsibility they have by clearing the accumulated rental debt, preferably in a way that will not simply bail out and continue to improve and empower property owners. Passing the Tax Cancellation and Withdrawal Act introduced by Minnesota representative Ilhan Omar could be a good start.
These ideas are not out of the ordinary. More than 415 organizations, including the Minority Veterans of America, the National Young Farmers Coalition and the NA.A.C.P., have signed a letter calling on Biden administrators to exercise their administrative authority to cancel student loans. In the early days of the epidemic, the Poor People’s Campaign, a group of racial and economic justice, introduced the Jubilee Platform, and recently collaborated with the legislatures of the progressive “Third Reconstruction Resolution,” both of which highlighted debt relief.
