Biden Administration Resists Democrats' Pleas On Student Debt Relief As Deadline Nears

By Ariana Figueroa, Maine Beacon:

Beacon reporter Evan Popp contributed to this story.

Congressional Democrats are urging the White House to extend the freeze on student loan repayments, and for the president to cancel up to $50,000 of student debt — but so far the administration is not budging.

“As I’m about to start payments for the first time in February and accruing interest, it’s very frustrating to know that’s going to be there, and that it will be there for 10, 15 years — however long it takes,” Dolan said of her student debt.

Dolan said if Biden acted to protect people by continuing the freeze on loan repayments or canceling student debt altogether, it would show “his intention and the government’s intention to allow young people … to be part of the economy and actually part of building America and not just struggling around debt.”

Dolan added that an additional problem with crippling student debt is that it saps creativity, making many young people more likely to take corporate jobs with higher pay rather than pursuing something they’re passionate about.

“It is an issue so present on young people’s minds and one that is so determinative of what young people choose to do that in order to have an economy and a culture and a government and a state that we actually want to live in, we’re going to need to cancel debt to allow people to shine,” Dolan argued.

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