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Is Biden Bailing on Student Loan Forgiveness Pledge? | The Mehdi Hasan Show - YouTube
Channel: MSNBC
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there is a ticking time bomb looming
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over the american economy nearly two
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trillion dollars in student loans owed
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by 50 million borrowers americans now
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owe more in student loans than they owe
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in car loans and credit cards and it
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falls disproportionately on the poor and
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non-white
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and this is not just a problem for
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younger americans those over 50 years
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olds have the fastest growing student
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loan debt burden of any age group when
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the pandemic started the education
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department put federal student loan
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payments on hold joe biden extended that
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forbearance twice
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but the grace period ends in august and
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experts warn that once payments kick
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back in more americans are going to fall
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behind on the campaign trail biden
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promised broad student loan forgiveness
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but since winning the election he's
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failed to fully commit
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the legislation passed by the democratic
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council calls for immediate ten thousand
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dollar forgiveness of student loan just
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holding people up they're in real
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trouble we need student loan forgiveness
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beyond the potential ten thousand
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dollars your administration has proposed
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we need at least a fifty thousand dollar
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minimum what will you do to make that
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happen i will not make that happen i'm
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prepared to write off the ten thousand
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dollars debt
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um but not fifty
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mr president let me ask you because i
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don't think i have the authority to do
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it by signing the pen
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you heard biden there doubling doubting
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whether he could legally forgive
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more than ten thousand dollars in
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student loan debt unilaterally without
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action from congress back in april 2021
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the department of education examined the
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issue and released their own conclusions
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in a seven page memo the only problem
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that memo's findings have not been
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publicly released the only available
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copy is completely redacted
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and even with a thin democratic majority
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the senate has failed to take up a
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student loan deal that can withstand a
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republican filibuster but finally this
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week there is a small sign of progress
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on executive action on monday big met
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with members of the congressional
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hispanic caucus and reportedly told them
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that he's not only going to extend the
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forbearance on federal student loans
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he's also considering
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canceling debt by using his authority as
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president sooner rather than later
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here's what he said
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on thursday
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morning
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i am considering
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dealing with some debt reduction i am
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not considering 50 000 debt reduction
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but i'm in the process of taking a hard
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look at whether or not
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there are going to there will be
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additional debt forgiveness and uh i'll
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have an answer on that in the next
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couple weeks
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republicans are already crying files
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saying it's a ploy by democrats to
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pander for votes in november some
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senators have talked about introducing a
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bill to keep biden from forgiving that
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debt but joe biden made a promise to
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americans and many of them are asking if
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our government can bail out wall street
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when they make bad bets why can't it
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help working americans facing economic
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insecurity just because they sought a
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better
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life with me now astra taylor she is
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co-founder of the debt collective which
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calls itself the country's first union
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for debtors so after this is very
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interesting to me you heard the
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president right there saying that
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he might be able to cancel ten thousand
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thousand debt but not fifty thousand
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dollars in debt without congressional
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action what's the difference there what
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why is ten thousand the cap
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ten thousand dollars is absolutely not
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the cap fifty thousand dollars is not
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the cap there's nothing holding back
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from the pa holding back the president
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from canceling all federal student loans
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which are the vast majority of student
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loans in this country this authority
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comes from the higher education act of
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1965 and it's important to note that
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president biden during his career as
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senator actually voted multiple times to
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reauthorize the higher education act in
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other words he was part of those
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congressional bodies that granted the
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power he now possesses to cancel student
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debt and it's also important to note
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that
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his administration has actually been
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using this very same authority to cancel
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the interest as part of these student
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loan payment pauses so it's very strange
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to suddenly say oh hold on i don't know
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if i have the legal authority to do
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something i'm doing it's really a matter
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of political will
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the president has been boxed in on this
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issue
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and that's because of years and years of
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grassroots mobilization and pressure
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but he absolutely has the power to pick
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up the pen and cancel not ten thousand
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dollars not fifty thousand dollars but
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all
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federal student loans well let's let's
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dig into a little bit why he's not doing
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that you say he's been boxed in explain
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to us why the president
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would not move forward on this thing
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this is something that his base really
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wants
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why would they redact the entire memo
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from the department of education which
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would give the rationale whether or not
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they felt like they had the authority or
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not but we can't see that what is the
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reason here
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well i have to say that memo was
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actually only released because the debt
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collective foied uh the memo and i
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can only presume that it's redacted
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because it says what is obvious and what
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is factual which is that the president
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does indeed have the authority to do
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this
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i believe that his reluctance has to do
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with you know having a very outmoded
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conception of who student debtors are i
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mean the president was part of a
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generation that got to go to college for
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free or close to it and didn't have to
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take on massive amounts of debt and
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mortgage their future just for the
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chance of having a decent life
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so he routinely invokes very outdated
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stereotypes uh you know
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saying that you know student debtors are
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all ivy league graduates that might be
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the case for the people in washington
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that he works with but that is not
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representative of of student debtors
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writ large i mean 40 of borrowers don't
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have a college degree which means they
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have the burden of debt without a
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diploma student debtors come from all
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walks of life as you just stated in your
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opening they're younger they're older
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they're black they're white their
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parents their grandparents their senior
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citizens what student debtors are not is
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wealthy because wealthy people do not
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have to take on debt to go to college
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right they can pay for it or more
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typically their parents do
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there's a fascinating anecdote to come
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out of the biden meeting according to
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those who were present biden told
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lawmakers that he understood the burden
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of student loans on a personal level
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since he has recently finished paying
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off his late son beau's outstanding
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student debt i think a lot of people are
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shocked by the fact that bo biden who
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worked as a federal prosecutor a state
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attorney general and an army lawyer in
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iraq
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still had outstanding student loan debt
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years after his death
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at age 46. how common is this
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i mean that that makes us think he he
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might have had a private student loan
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but the fact is that people carry
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student debt to their graves i mean this
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is the problem that we're seeing with
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more and more seniors having student
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debt people are forced to go back to
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school because it's a precarious job
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market so they're trying to uh reinvent
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themselves or they're taking out parent
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plus loans for their students so we're
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seeing people you know carrying these
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debts uh for decades and decades and you
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know this disproportionately affects
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uh black and brown communities black
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women are the most burdened by student
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debt and this is because of a lack of
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intergenerational family wealth because
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of wage discrimination all these things
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that make it harder to pay off your
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debts it also means that people
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end up paying you know far more than the
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principle over time so that that calls
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into question um why we even call this
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forgiveness right i mean many millions
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of people have paid what they initially
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borrowed but they're stuck in a debt
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trap
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so student debt is sold as a lifeline
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you know again we're told it's the key
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to upward mobility but it is an anchor
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that is dragging 45 million debtors down
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and hurting their families and hurting
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communities and ultimately i believe
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hurting all of us i mean i don't have
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student debt but i believe this burden
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has to be lifted uh because it would be
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good for all of us it would boost the
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economy it would narrow the racial
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wealth gap and the more we cancel the
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more we reap those benefits there is not
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a good argument out there for limiting
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relief to ten thousand or fifty thousand
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dollars the the economic social
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political and moral arguments are for
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doing more for going all the way and
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that's what the president should do
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let's stay on this point that you were
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just making about who is
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disproportionately burdened by this debt
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republicans and a lot of democrats say
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broad student loan forgiveness would
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benefit rich donors and lawyers in ivy
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league grads just like he was just
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mentioning who could afford to make
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their payments but the federal reserve
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says that while just six percent of
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white student debt holders are behind on
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their payments 20 percent of black bars
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and 23 percent of hispanic borrowers
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are behind our system disproportionately
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hits borrowers of color why is that
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once again it's because of structural
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inequities the lack of intergenerational
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wealth that makes it harder for people
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to pay for tuition up front or for
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parents to provide that for the children
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wage discrimination on the job market if
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you're making less per dollar compared
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to a white employee it's harder to pay
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off that loan and so the interest
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compounds and the balance grows
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these are structural uh disadvantages
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that we need to address and that's
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that's part of the moral case for
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canceling student debt the arguments
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that student debt benefits the rich are
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patently false and we need again to keep
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in mind the fact that wealthy people do
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not have to take out loans to go to
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school um
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and we also have to look at who's making
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those arguments the people talking about
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regressivity tend to be working for
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right wing think tanks often funded by
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the student loan servicer money they
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weren't
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making the same
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case when uh corporations got a bunch of
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debt relief at the beginning of the
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coveted pandemic they weren't uh
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sounding the alarm about the forgivable
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ppp loans that went to hedge fund
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managers and to payday lenders there's
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real hypocrisy here and so you know the
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truth is if student debt cancellation
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benefited the rich the republicans would
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have done it already and that's what the
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president should say when people come at
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him with these cynical attacks you know
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we have the moral high ground here got
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it
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ashley taylor thank you so much for
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joining us really important conversation
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[Music]
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you
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