Not to be outdone by a proposal that would eliminate $50,000 of student loan debt for per individual, Sen. Bernie Sanders [I-Vt.] announced a plan yesterday to cancel all $1.6 trillion of outstanding student loans for any undergraduate or graduate programs across the country.
Senate Bill 1947 would amend the Higher Education Act to ensure college for everyone, providing tuition-free education for anyone who qualifies.
“The bottom line is we shouldn’t be punishing people for getting to higher education,” Sanders said at a news conference announcing his bill. “It is time to hit the reset button. Under the proposal that we introduced today, all student debt would be canceled in six months.”
Sanders’s plan comes days after Sen. Elizabeth Warren [D-Mass.], who is also running for president like Sanders, announced legislation that would eliminate $50,000 of student loan debt per individual, based on income eligibility levels. Sanders is proposing wiping out everyone’s student loan debt, regardless of income level or repayment ability.
To offset the lost revenue from wiping out student loans, Sanders’s legislation would impose a new tax on investments, which could raise $2.4 trillion during the next 10 years, according to a published report.
“This proposal completely eliminates student debt in this country and ends the absurdity of sentencing an entire generation, the millennial generation, to a lifetime of debt for the crime of doing the right thing — and that is going out and getting a higher education,” Sanders said at the news conference.
