 Well, student loan repayments are set to resume at the end of the month and everyone with student debt is currently clenching their butt cheeks Hoping and praying that Biden will finally do something substantial now We know he's not going to cancel $50,000 worth of student debt, but will he cancel 10,000? Possibly will it be means tested almost certainly But if he's going to do this when is he going to make the announcement? So with this deadline approaching is he coming any closer to figuring out what he wants to do? Even if he's had months to agonize over this decision Well, no because as Politico explains press secretary Karine Jean Pierre said on Tuesday that Biden had not made any Decision on whether to extend the freeze on payments or widespread debt cancellation. You've had Months you've been president now for a very long time. What are you going to do? This crisis isn't going to go away 43 million Americans owe student debt an average of more than 37,000 dollars Are you just going to not do anything now? It's a Biden's credit the White House did meet with student loan activists as Politico explains a range of outside groups working on student loan Cancellation were invited to participate in the event on Thursday So this is an article that was published on Wednesday the White House described the meeting as an opportunity for you to share your Priorities on student debt relief according to a copy of the invitation obtained by Politico Officials from the White House Domestic Policy Council National Economic Council Office of Public Engagement and Office of Political Strategy and Outreach are scheduled to attend the meeting So that's great. I'm glad that they're listening credit words to the problem is that what more needs to be said I mean have student loan activists not been incredibly vocal Cancel it all and if you're not going to cancel it all at least cancel 50,000 and if you're not going to cancel 50,000 at least Fix it so that way the interest isn't growing at such a fast rate that you could never pay it down In fact the amount that you owe increases over time and we'll get to that in a second with some stories from student debt holders But I mean look we can only do this for so long. It's a game at this point. It's it's patronizing It's frustrating how long are we going to do this tap dance? You know what's needed to be done You know what we want. So are you going to do it or are you not going to do it sitting on a fence trying to? You know appease everyone isn't going to do anything about this and the problem with the plan that was speculated Hence why I think that you know Maybe it's been postponed is if you only want to cancel $10,000 and you want to means a means test whatever amount you're canceling well The Department of Education doesn't actually have access to people's annual income So how were they supposed to know who qualifies and who doesn't qualify well? You have to create some sort of an opt-in program which takes more time I mean it's easier to just have a universal program where all student debt holders Get a $10,000 canceled But if you're not going to do it that way if you want to do a means test the program Sure, it's better than nothing But if you force people to opt-in and sign up for it not only is that more work not only does that complicate things But you create this opportunity where people who need that cancellation can miss out on this opportunity If they don't have the capacity to fill out said paperwork or know what to do to collect said cancellation So it's it's very frustrating But I want to share this video that was Created by the SDCC now they talked to a bunch of student loan holders and asked them several questions And their stories are just downright Infuriating and it's not like these are unique circumstances This is a very common phenomenon with people who have student debt take a look walking away on commencement day meant I had a diploma in one hand and an invoice for a six-figure student loan debt in the other The loan was originally a $24,000 loan Currently I owe over $45,000 and I've been paying it off for about Six years now. I paid a hundred and three on eighty two thousand dollar debt and it's still want $45,000 that's money that I can't put toward retirement a student loan It's not coming down. It's going up. My debt started off at 33,000. It is now somewhere closer to 200,000 I probably will be paying them till I'm 80 years old at this point graduated in 1998 with twenty nine thousand dollars a student loan debt this year my student loan debt has accumulated to Almost fifty two thousand dollars after paying on it all these years I was able to get rid of this debt It would set me up for a more successful future Counsel all student debt let us do the financial contributions to our economy that we want to do that we're trying to do Present body and we need help ten thousand not really do it bailed out people with money You've held up the big banks, but you won't bail out the everyday person such as myself That last point that that woman made was absolutely devastating. We bail out the big banks We give large multinational corporations bailouts, but when it comes to just everyday Americans Sorry, no bailout for you You get stuck with this debt for the rest of your life and there's no way to discharge it You can't file bankruptcy on your student loans So you can file bankruptcy on other types of debt, but when it comes to student loans Sorry, you can't even file bankruptcy on it Thanks in large part due to Joe Biden's bankruptcy bill that he passed when he was a US senator So he could write this wrong and actually just cancel it all But I mean if this is such a hard decision because it you know could help normal Americans Don't want to do too much for the pubs right and some of these stories are downright insane So one guy said that he graduated in 1998 with $29,000 in student debt He's been making payments all this time for decades now and now he owes $52,000. Do you understand? This is a catch-22 we will never be able to discharge this debt even if we make our payments every single month The interest rates is perhaps The biggest thing like if Biden were to give us the option to between $10,000 in cancellation and just making the interest rate zero I'd go with that because at least at some point we'd be able to pay it off But at this rate none of us can pay it off and the federal government can do this because they hold 92.7% of all federal student loans So Biden can make this decision unilaterally and say all of these people who hold federal student loans Your interest rate is now zero going forward if you're not gonna cancel anything that would probably be the better option because the interest rates are Absolutely insane. I mean all of these stories It's the same thing one man borrowed 25,000. You know owes 45,000, you know one woman borrowed 33,000 She now owes a hundred thousand almost and that woman in the video couldn't retire Do you understand like something has to be done if you just don't do anything the crisis will only worsen And it's not like a Republican is going to do anything about it So this may be our last chance for a very long time to have anything be accomplished and Biden is dragging his feet Again, I appreciate the meetings with people with advocates who want student debt cancelled But you already know you don't you don't need to do any more research. We don't need to have any more meetings we don't need to have some sort of a commission that Determines whether or not the federal government has the legal authority to cancel student debt You know what you can do and what you should do It's just a matter of will you do this now some stats on student debt that are shocking in q1 of 2020 borrowers owed A combined 1.67 trillion dollars now by q1 of 2022 that increased to 1.75 Trillion so it is growing fast now. I'm sure that a lot of that is new borrowers But part of the reason why it's growing so fast is because the interest rates I mean again, we saw the stories you borrow a small amount Even if you make payments consistently throughout the years throughout decades even you can never pay it off It's a fucking catch 22 And that's what people who don't care about this issue fail to realize it's one of these issues where you know They can just callously brush it off and say, you know what I paid off my student debt I mean, I don't know how anyone can do that unless you have just like one love some But you know, they'll say oh well when I went to college back in the fucking 60s It was fine. I was able to pay off my student debt things have changed Things have changed the economy has changed. We have multiple generations now millennials gen z gen x even some boomers as we saw in the video who They can't actually live boomers can't retire Millennials and zoomers aren't able to actually live their lives move out of their parents homes because not only is it difficult to find A good-paying job, but they have this debt that will follow them for the rest of their lives that they can never discharge So if Biden actually wants to make a change for the better, he knows what he needs to do The question is does he have the political courage to do what's necessary and we'll have to wait and see now I told you that 43 million americans owe student debt an average of $37,667 Now most of that is owed by people of color And think about this the average is $37,667 so if you owe that now perhaps in 10 years You owe $50,000 because that's the way that this works now This fear-mongering that we've heard prior to the pandemic before student repayments were paused Was that oh my god? Well, we can't we can't stop student loan repayments because that will impact the economy In a negative way because the federal government needs this revenue Well, I mean the federal government hasn't had this revenue now for Two years So that argument is now gone Now we know that biden has the authority to cancel student debt because he's been canceling some student debt In narrow instances trump did it as well and like I want to be charitable here Biden has made some changes, but they're not sweeping enough So for example, he has made it easier to discharge debt if you went to a predatory college And also as the hill explains other proposals include eliminating interest capitalization rates on loans for borrowers in certain instances Making it easier for permanently disabled borrowers to qualify for loan forgiveness And giving borrowers an easier path toward loan forgiveness if they were falsely certified and ineligible for a loan So these are good things. These are improvements, but it's not good enough This is a crisis and if you're just like trying to nibble away at this issue Around the edges you're you're not going to actually cut to the core and address The crux of it. You're not going to Ameliorate this burden that millions of americans have 43 million americans. That is no small number So look biden passed the inflation reduction act And his approval rating jumped a couple of points just having this idea that government is doing something People like that. So imagine if they not only knew that you were doing something, but you did something really well That materially benefits people in a very concrete way immediately I mean, we saw the way that these lives would change my life would change if I didn't have student debt So biden could single-handedly change people's lives forever By canceling student debt that doesn't mean that you don't have to do further reforms And make college and universities tuition-free because if you cancel debt for one generation Then it's just going to accumulate over time with the next generation and you have to stop this So each subsequent generation doesn't have this issue But I mean if he did this he would immediately become a hero to 43 million people my Perception of biden as cynical as I am would change immediately for the better if he did this But the problem is that we all know that biden isn't going to do to do this and I would love to be proven wrong But we know biden we know who he is and what he won't do Again at best we can expect $10,000 means tested and I'll take it. That's better than nothing. I'd qualify for that Let's do it. The problem is it's not good enough. And if we're serious if we want to get serious About getting rid of this issue He knows what needs to be done. I'm tired of talking about it already. I want more action and less talk