 About a week or two ago, I'm sure that you've seen the headlines about how the Biden administration was trying to find a way to quietly restart the student loan repayment program that was put on hold because of the global pandemic. That is still very much going on, just to remind everyone. And by now, I'm sure that those of you who hold a student loan debt have already gotten the emails about how repayments will be restarting really soon, come the end of January in 2022. And so this is a really, really embarrassing missed opportunity. And on top of that, it's Joe Biden going back on one of his campaign promises. The easy response and the best thing that I've seen after reading these headlines comes from Ayanna Presley, who writes student debt cancellation is a racial economic and intergenerational issue. It is good economic policy that will change the lives of millions of families. Potus can and must cancel student debt. Now saying he can cancel student debt as president, it seems obvious. But what she's saying there is really important because Joe Biden has actually disputed that he has the legal authority to forgive any amount of student loan debt, which is bizarre to me considering that Donald Trump forgave billions of dollars in student loan debt. Oh, and also Biden has already forgiven student loan debt. So it doesn't make sense to say that he doesn't have the legal authority to do this. And it's really a cop out. So he ran on canceling $10,000 of student loan debt. It's a measly amount that's not going to meaningfully impact people's lives if they're burdened by student loan debt. But it's something will every single debt holder say, I'll take that over nothing. Yeah, of course, because right now people are struggling, right? But he is now saying, rather than using my pen to unilaterally cancel student loan debt, it needs to be done legislatively. That's what he started to say immediately after he was sworn in. And if you say you're going to cancel student loan debt, you need to fulfill that promise not just because it's morally right, but because, I mean, if you want young people to vote for you in 2024, you have to deliver otherwise they're going to stay home. But it gets worse because not only is Joe Biden abandoning his promise to cancel even a measly $10,000, but he's also wavering on helping people who are at risk of defaulting on their student loan debt. As Alex Salmon of the American Prospect explains in a really insightful thread on Twitter, all 7.3 million student loan borrowers in default are now eligible to escape default thanks actually to Trump. All the Biden administration would need to do is waive the paperwork requirement. But Biden has signaled he's still undecided about doing this. Biden has disappointed profoundly on student debt forgiveness, kicking his unequivocal authority to cancel $10,000 to Congress while commissioning a Department of Education memo on the ability to cancel $50,000 that has been MIA for six months and counting. Biden shirking his authority to help borrowers has become a reality for frustrated activists and borrowers, but refusing to take 7.3 million people out of default over an administrative procedure with explicitly provisional power would be an Austrian shock. It's also terrifying politically. Biden has abandoned clear pledges on student debt and bailed on tuition-free community college. Dems need youth turnout to have any shot in 2022 and 2024, and they've chosen to give up on things young people care about most. Getting 7.3 million people out of default would take the poorest and most vulnerable student loan borrowers out of wage, social security, and earned income tax credit garnishment. It would give them access to billions in rightfully owed anti-poverty money. Biden could have taken 7.3 million student loan borrowers out of default on his first day without spending a cent that would have made billions of dollars of anti-poverty program money available to these low-income, largely non-white borrowers. He still hasn't. And that's what makes this so unbelievably infuriating because Joe Biden is an Austerian. So whatever he does legislatively, any bill he signs, he wants to make sure that it's not deficit spending, he wants to make sure it's paid for. But when it comes to student loan debt, you wouldn't be able to cancel almost all of it without requiring any new spending because 92% of student loan debt is held by the federal government. So this is a win-win. It's a win on a policy standpoint, and it's a win politically because this would be extremely popular. But now he won't even cancel a measly 10,000, and he's wavering on helping the most vulnerable student loan debt holders. It's baffling as a political strategy. I mean, if you want to win in 2022 and 2024, you have to show people that you've delivered, especially young people who you need to win. But if they stay home, Democrats are screwed. And if Democrats lose power, then any small opportunity we have at taking any meaningful action to address the climate crisis, it's over. And it's already probably a foregone conclusion. I'm sure that Democrats will get wiped out in 2022 because Republicans are going to gerrymander their way to victory. They already don't have to win very much to retake control of at least one branch of government. But Democrats are making their job that much easier by doing fuck all to help normal people. And the Senate majority leader is saying you have the ability, you have the authority as president to cancel $50,000. He has the authority, to be clear, to cancel all of it. But the Senate majority leader, who's no progressive, is saying cancel $50,000. And Joe Biden won't even meet him halfway. It's just, it's truly ridiculous. If Joe Biden is expecting progressives to vote for that hollowed at $1.8 trillion bill, assuming that that's what it's going to be, if not less. What progressives should do is they should say, look, I'm not supporting that. But maybe you can change my mind a little bit. Maybe I'll think about it if, before that bill is put up to a vote, you use your pen to unilaterally cancel $50,000 of student loan debt. I mean, that's the only way he's going to even consider it. Because at this point, he's just, he's made it clear this isn't a priority for him. Democrats have made it clear that getting young people to consistently come out and vote for them is not a priority. It's almost like they don't want power. They don't care about the climate crisis. They don't care about Republicans taking control. They just, they couldn't care less. And that's really, that's frustrating, right? Joe Biden is incredibly weak. He has betrayed a lot of promises and where he's done well at withdrawing from Afghanistan, that's good. But you need people to feel a change. The early childhood tax credit, that was a really good thing. But you have to keep delivering when people are suffering, otherwise they're going to forget come election time. So we shouldn't have to be begging and pleading with Democrats like Joe Manchin who claimed that he'd be the next FDR, which was laughable, to just offer more than the bare minimum for once. But here we are. And now that we're shitting on Joe Biden, I've got to show you this video of him coughing into his hand and then shaking other people's hands. I mean, it's another reason to be disgusted with Joe Biden. And to me, that is almost as disgusting as his refusal to help the 42.9 million student loanholders. But maybe I'm biased because I'm one of them. But at a minimum, you should help the 7.3 million student loanholders who are at risk of default because they are the most vulnerable. But now it's up in the air when that's something that you should just expect from someone who claimed that he wanted to help people. He claimed that he'd meet the moment on the campaign trail. But I mean, of course, that was all talk. So I mean, what the Democratic Party is doing with Joe Manchin at the head of it is they're heading straight off of a cliff. And it's something that can be avoided. You can still make that shift rapidly to stop catastrophe. But it seems like they're not willing to do it. So I mean, here we are. It's infuriating. But things continue to get worse in this country because we don't have a government that works for the people. It works for large multinational corporations. And the one party who claims that they care about working people, at least they pay lip service to the needs of working Americans, they have a moment to actually affect change and they are fucking it up.