Drowning in Debt

Photo from Accredited Debt Relief.

Peyton Impola

As President Joe Biden’s approval rating has fallen to a record 40%, the lowest in his presidency, many of his prior supporters are being deterred by his failure to follow through on his campaign promises. One of the most important of these promises was Biden’s vow to cancel a large chunk of student loan debt. In the words of the President himself, “I’m going to eliminate your student debt if you come from a family making less than $125,000 and went to a public university. I’m going to make sure everyone gets $10,000 knocked off of their student loan debt.” 

However, as of right now, all President Biden has managed to do is institute a student loan moratorium and set interest rates to zero percent. It seems that fulfilling his promise is more difficult than he had originally thought. 

The main issue the President is facing is the very structure of our government. Because the federal government has a separation of powers, the president does not actually have the authority to cancel student loan debt–that power falls to Congress. Some may point out that the president has the ability to use an executive order, but the Higher Education Act of 1965 does not explicitly empower the president to cancel student loans an unlimited amount of times. It is unlikely that Congress will relinquish their power to Biden in order for him to gain authority in the realm of student loans. Because the legislative and executive branches of our government have different powers and responsibilities, President Biden’s options are limited, as he would likely have to request a bill be introduced to Congress–but even then it would have to pass in both chambers, which is unlikely to happen considering the current political makeup of Congress. 

For many, this resounding failure is enough to shake their support for our President. People voted for Biden based on the promises he and his campaign made. For him to be unsuccessful in implementing these promises is a stab to the heart. At the start of 2020, student loan debt in the United States hit $1.67 trillion dollars. While President Biden has offered some help in instituting 0% interest and a moratorium, those are only temporary solutions. Almost 1.7 trillion dollars isn’t going to just go away on its own. Should President Biden completely fail to follow through on his promises, millions of people will once again be left scrambling to pay off their student loans. 

Photo of the National Student Loan Debt from Education Data.

Just ask Rosemary Anderson, a woman who shared her student loan debt story with the Student Debt Crisis Center. Anderson told the SDCC that she got her undergraduate degree in 1993 at age 37, and her masters degree in 2001. She was given the opportunity to consolidate those loans, which she chose to do, thinking it would simplify the process and keep her on track with her payments. What Anderson did not know was that by doing so she was giving up her chance to refinance and lower her payments. Well into her sixties by now, Anderson has an 8.5% interest rate, and will likely never be able to fully repay her loans. She never thought that going back to school would condemn her to a life of debt that she would never be able to repay, but under our current system similar experiences plague thousands of people. 

This issue is about more than just financing college–it is about living in a system where politicians blindly make promises without any intention or ability to fulfill them. If we as a nation can take one thing away from the President’s inability to follow through with his promise, be it that we must stop waiting for those in power to serve us, and start to use our voices to demand change for the better.