‘Enough is enough’: Warren officially introduces bill to cancel student debt

Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) is tripling down on combating student debt.

In an announcement today along with House Majority Whip James E. Clyburn (D-SC), the presidential candidate announced the “Student Loan Debt Relief Act of 2019.”

Warren first pitched a student debt plan as a presidential candidate in April, and then started discussing the upcoming legislation in June.

Taken together, Warren’s plans attack student debt in three ways: Cancelling debt, reforming the predatory — or “lousy” — student loan system that’s in place, and making college free for all.

“I was shocked when I woke up one morning … and saw that student loan debt had eclipsed credit card debt,” Rep. Clyburn said at a press conference to unveil the legislation. “This may be depressing to current holders of this debt. But when you think about a college graduate going out to start a career and a family, the impact of student loan debt goes far beyond that generation.”

The duo hopes that this would “end the student debt crisis,” on top of helping “millions of struggling families obtain financial stability” and closing the “racial wealth gap.” The move comes a day after Warren published a dire warning that the economy was in danger of collapsing.

Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren goes in for a hug with Rep. Jim Clyburn during Jim Clyburn's World Famous Fish Fry in Columbia, South Carolina, U.S., June 21, 2019.  Picture taken June 21, 2019. REUTERS/Leah Millis
Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren goes in for a hug with Rep. Jim Clyburn in Columbia, South Carolina, U.S., June 21, 2019. (Photo credit: REUTERS/Leah Millis)

What the plan says

There’s more than a trillion dollars in outstanding student loans, affecting millions of Americans. Warren and Clyburn’s plan proposes a number of actions that would uniformly ease the financial pressure.

First they want to cancel up to $50,000 on student debt for people who earn a household income of less than $100,000. She also proposes automatic cancellation for these individuals.

This has been a contentious point, as with government debt to GDP projected to go up to 144% by 2049, such a measure could really hurt the U.S. economy.

“My very first bill when I got to the Senate was legislation to tackle the growing student debt crisis because I was sick of Washington allowing the wealthy to pay less, while burying tens of millions of Americans in mountains of student loan debt,” Warren said in the press release. “Since then, Washington has only allowed this crisis to get worse—especially for people of color. Enough is enough.”

(Source: WalletHub, Graphic: David Foster)
(Source: WalletHub, Graphic: David Foster)

The new bill also aims to allow private borrowers to convert their private student loans into federal student loans through refinancing, allowing them to be eligible for debt cancellation.

This would make a difference especially for those who go to for-profit colleges and take on heavy debt loads to finance that education.

The duo also wants to make sure canceled debt is not taxable income and allow a yearlong freeze on loan payments that borrowers make. Warren and Clyburn would do away with wage garnishments by Department of Education on troubled loans and interest that’s accumulated on student loans while debt cancellation is being implemented. They also want to allow borrowers to automatically refinance remaining federal student debt to interest rates specified in another one of Warren’s bills, Bank on Student Emergency Loan Refinancing Act.