A majority of young Americans without student debt support Biden canceling it for everyone else

[AZProgressive]

A majority of young Americans without student debt support Biden canceling it for everyone else, new poll finds

Student-loan forgiveness is popular among young likely voters — even those who never had debt balances themselves.

On Wednesday, the Student Borrower Protection Center, in partnership with Data for Progress, released a poll provided exclusively to Insider that found 71% of likely voters aged 18-34 support student-debt cancellation, and 66% of them with no student debt still support relief. The polling was conducted from March 17 to May 3 among 664 respondents.

(Snip)

The support for some or all cancellation of student debt was also among 56% of Republicans, 66% of independents, and 84% of Democrats. These results come as the conversation surrounding potential student-loan relief is picking up, with Biden recently saying a decision on forgiveness will be made in the coming weeks. While he noted he is not considering $50,000 in forgiveness — an amount many progressive lawmakers were hoping for — it's looking likely at least his $10,000 forgiveness campaign pledge will be fulfilled.

While many Republican lawmakers have argued forgiving student debt would hurt the economy and be unfair to those who already paid it off, Wednesday's poll results suggest otherwise. It also echoes a notion New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez expressed earlier this month, in which she noted loan forgiveness is beneficial for everyone, even those without debt.

https://www.businessinsider.com/young-people-without-student-debt-still-support-cancellation-poll-2022-5

[Fiendish Thingy]

1. Gee, if only there was something Biden could do to inspire youth to turnout for the midterms?

Increasing youth turnout for the midterms (it was 50% in 2020, so lots of untapped potential Dem votes) makes much more sense than wasting time and money trying to flip a small number of economically anxious white swing voters.

[Kaleva]

23. Fighting to defend a woman's right to choose isn't motivation enough I guess.

Supporting the only party that believes climate change is serious isn't motivation enough I guess.

Climate change is going to kill or make survival very hard for most of the young people but apparently, writing off student loan debt is the only issue that really matters.

[Fiendish Thingy]

27. Delivering on promises motivates young voters more than the promises themselves, I guess

Yes, I know, Manchin, Sinema, Yada yada.

Student debt is something Biden and Dems can deliver with no excuses, and it doesn’t interfere with policies and promises on those other very important issues, and if it motivates young voters, actually helps deliver on those promises.

[Kaleva]

29. This election will tell us how much young people care about a woman's right to choose.

If they don't care, should we really care about them?

[Fiendish Thingy]

31. Depends on whether you want a majority that cannot be obstructed by 2 senators

Like I said, young voters are a more reliable bloc of progressive voters -when they vote - than any group of economically anxious white swing voters.

So, it makes sense to me that anything that could increase turnout among young voters should be done. Debt forgiveness doesn’t preclude protecting a woman’s right to choose, and in fact might increase the chances of an unstoppable majority to pass SCOTUS-proof legislation.

[Kaleva]

32. I would argue defending women's rights alone should be motivation enough to get young people to vote

If they care, they'll turn out in record numbers. If not, they won't.

Irregardless, their future's are fucked as climate change will kill or make survival for many of them very hard.

"Across The Board And Across The Globe, Climate Collapse Indicators Set New Records In 2021"

https://www.democraticunderground.com/1127153052

The best thing we can do for young people is to tell them the truth and to help prepare them for what is coming so that at least a few will have a fighting chance.

[LonePirate]

2. The opposition for the proposal has always been from older Americans.

There's even a solid contingent here on DU opposed to anything above a meager loan forgiveness.

[pstokely]

11. better stay of their lawns

&t=114s&ab_channel=SchuylerHolland
still better about their butt naked walk to school in the snow

[Jose Garcia]

14. Older Americans People who actually vote

[Cuthbert Allgood]

16. OK. Let's do this AGAIN. People under 50 got Biden elected.

Boomers trended Trump by +3%
Gen X trended Biden by +3%
Everyone younger than Gen X trended Biden by a LOT.

So, it's not good at this point that older Americans actually vote since they trend Republican.

So there's that.

[global1]

3. This Might Be A Stupid Question - But After Student Debt Is Forgiven.....

What is going to happen to student loans for future students?

Will there be some sort of new rules for borrowing and interest rates for students needing money to go to college.

OR

Will things just gravitate back to what things were before student loans were forgiven?

I'm assuming here that Biden will come up with some sort of student loan forgiveness for those in debt currently from student loans.

[BannonsLiver]

7. Short answer: they're fucked

Just like all the suckers who got student loans, went to college and then paid them off. This is about people only in the present.

[Aristus]

9. Well, maybe we could offer interest-free loans, or loans that just don't come with

ruinous, crippling interest rates.

[global1]

10. The Point Being - Is That We Should Set Up A System That Won't Take Us Back To....

this crippling system that we're currently stuck with. We need to not only wipe out current student loan debt - but we need to make sure that future students don't get saddled with crippling debt.

[Aristus]

12. Exactly.

[Zeitghost]

25. The interest rates

On federally subsidized loans is incredibly low, especially given the credit history of the borrower.

[honest.abe]

15. It seems to me current students might be even more aggressive with borrowing..

given that they will assume their loans will be forgiven in the future.

[Zeitghost]

26. That is exactly what will happen

If you're a college student who's tuition and expenses are already covered, you're still going to max out those loans, expecting them to get written off by wave 2 of the loan forgiveness program.

And if you are a college you're going to jack up your tuition on your students who are now flush with cash from their maxed out loans.


Loan forgiveness sounds great but it will create a mountain of unintended consequences if not done with comprehensive loan and tuition reform.

[Alhena]

4. SCOTUS will overturn any debt relief even if Biden orders it

Both Biden and Pelosi have previously gone on the record as saying he doesn't have the authority to cancel student loan debt:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/adamminsky/2021/07/28/pelosi-president-biden-does-not-have-power-to-cancel-student-loan-debt/?sh=33a3b8425504

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2021/02/17/remarks-by-president-biden-in-a-cnn-town-hall-with-anderson-cooper/

Obama's former top lawyer on education matters said the same thing:

https://www.wsj.com/articles/mass-student-debt-cancellation-legally-risky-says-top-obama-education-lawyer-11651689489

Anyone who is expecting 6 hyper-conservative Justices to go along with this is living in dreamland. So it seems like a lot of wasted energy to even talk about it.

[Cuthbert Allgood]

5. Hmm, should have mentioned this in the campaign season.

[inthewind21]

17. NO

The voting public should be able to pass a civics 101 test and actually KNOW how their government works.

[Cuthbert Allgood]

18. So when he said he was prepared to write off $10,000

and that any more than that would need to be from Congress, he was, what, mistaken?

[inthewind21]

19. No

But clearly you were. He's already "wrote off" over 9 billion. He didn't say forgive it all.

[Cuthbert Allgood]

20. Of course he didn't say he'd forgive it all.

But he did say he could and would do $10K across the board. He specifically said that a president couldn't do the $50K that Warren was suggesting and that would need to be through Congress.

[Celerity]

33. The complex arguments surrounding the constitutionality of an Executive Order discharging 10K usd

(or different amounts for that matter) in student loan debt per person (with or without wealth caps) is HARDLY

civics 101

To claim it is borders on the laughable.

Many Americans cannot even name their State capital, and/or their two Senators and House Rep. Hell, a tonne cannot name the current VP.

Also, Biden has already written off smaller (smaller in toto, not smaller per borrower, as many borrowers have had far more than $10,000 in debt load forgiven) amounts and those EO's have not been struck down.

[GreenEyedLefty]

6. I am also in favor of this

I have paid my own loans plus loans for my kids. I would love to see debt forgiveness for everyone.

[riversedge]

38. That is kind of you.

[867-5309.]

8. This would be a greatly needed shot in the arm

for the economy and Democrats in the mid-terms!

[honest.abe]

13. A bit misleading.. a large percent only support canceling some of the debt, not all.

The light blue in the graph below represents those who only support partial cancellation of debt. I think that's not anything new or unexpected. Even most older folks would support partial cancellation.

[sl8]

36. Thanks for this.

It would have been interesting if they had included an option for "loan forgiveness for some borrowers, but not necessarily for every borrower".

[Elessar Zappa]

21. Does Biden actually have the power to do this?

Or does it need to be done through legislation?

[Celerity]

34. He already has been doing it, just on a more targeted basis (but often far larger than

10K USD per borrower).

[Elessar Zappa]

39. I'm all for student loan forgiveness.

But they need to do something about tuition costs (preferably free higher education) so that it doesn’t have to be re-addressed 5 or 10 years from now.

[ripcord]

22. I was honestly shocked to see people on the DU against this

It is pretty selfish to say since I paid off my student loans so no one shouldn't get forgiveness. Yes I paid off my student loans and would love see loan forgiveness now.

[Kaleva]

28. Climate change is going to make young people's future truly horrific.

Many will die. Those who don't will suffer and face severe hardships.

Paying off all or part of their student debt will do nothing for them.

They are fucked.

The best thing we can do for them to to encourage them to prepare to adapt for what is coming so that at least some of them will have a fighting chance.

[Kaleva]

24. Minor issue. Young voters will flock to the polls to defend a woman's right to choose.

[Kaleva]

30. This should motivate young people to vote but it's probably already too late

Posted by hatrack:

"Across The Board And Across The Globe, Climate Collapse Indicators Set New Records In 2021"

https://www.democraticunderground.com/1127153052

[Celerity]

35. that post was do depressing in regards to our future

[riversedge]

37. Not a stupid question at all. There are a lot of details to be worked out IF

Biden agrees to some [or all--which is highly Unlikely]. We constantly are bailing out corporations--which are people per the SC-. It is a mystery to me why so many officials say that Biden does not have the authority to forgive some or all.