‘Immediately, the Secretary of Education must take over all monthly payments during this public health emergency…’
(Claire Russel, Liberty Headlines) After the House and Senate passed a comprehensive coronavirus funding bill, Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., demanded that congressional leadership include student-loan debt cancellation in the next relief package.
We need bold action now. A plan that will ensure that we do not repeat the mistakes of the 2008 financial crisis.
Debt cancellation. Across the board.
Immediately, the Secretary of Education must take over all monthly payments during this public health emergency.
— Ayanna Pressley (@AyannaPressley) March 17, 2020
Warren argued that canceling student loan debt, even temporarily, would “remove a giant weight that’s dragging down our economy.”
Student loan debt cancellation MUST be a part of the next emergency coronavirus package to deliver relief immediately to millions of families and remove a giant weight that’s dragging down our economy. Senate and House progressives are in this fight all the way.
— Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) March 17, 2020
As the coronavirus pandemic spreads across the U.S., leftists have pointed to the federal government’s actions as proof that socialist policies are possible and necessary.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio–Cortez, D-N.Y., similarly argued earlier this week that the federal government’s economic response to the coronavirus proves student-loan debt can and should be canceled. Economists, however, were quick to point out that Ocasio–Cortez’s rant was a false comparison.
The Federal Reserve is not bailing out the banks, as Ocasio–Cortez suggested. Instead, it’s “lending to banks and strategically purchasing assets,” said Richard Morrison, a fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, according to Fox News.
“The short-term lending the Fed engages in is quickly repaid by the financial institutions in question, even when, as in this case, the Fed has decided to dramatically scale up certain categories of lending in response to a market downturn,” Morrison explained.