President Joe Biden said Tuesday night he would not support the plan proposed by prominent Democrats that sought to cancel up to $ 50,000 in federal student debt for borrowers. Biden was asked at a CNN town hall as to whether his efforts to tackle student debt were ambitious enough compared to the massive debt cancellation program backed not only by Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren but also Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer . “I won’t make it,” Biden said of the Democratic plan. “I am ready to cancel the debt of $ 10,000 but not $ 50 [thousand], because I don’t think I have the power to do it. However, many Democrats, including Warren and Schumer, believe that Biden Is have the power to write off debt held by the federal government through the Department of Education, meaning the decision could be made by the executive rather than requiring an act of Congress.

The extent of the debt the problem is huge: The United States, as a nation, currently owes nearly $ 2 trillion in student debt, with the average student, in 2018, owing between $ 20,000 and $ 25,000. The problem is compounded by the fact that students from low-income households underwrite and owe much more, and black graduates, in particular, are five times more likely to default on their loans. The impact will obviously be far-reaching: affect a generation’s ability to own homeownership and reduce the possibility of even thinking about retirement.

Student debt, like many issues close to the heart of the more progressive wing of the Democratic Party, was not a central issue for Biden when he announced he would run for president and then began to drop out of office. primaries and caucuses on the right and left to opponents with more political ambition. . Since then, Biden has come to the idea that he might in fact have to stand up for something other than decency, while simultaneously being offered a rare historic moment during the pandemic where Americans might simply be open to new ideas about their own. way of life. After winning the presidency in November, the people of Biden played with those pushing for a big student debt cancellation, but eventually returned to form, rallying around a smaller debt relief idea. . It is certainly Biden’s political decision to make and there are many competing political priorities and legitimate differences in how to go about it. What is striking is that Biden is inclined to take no political decisions on student debt relief.

The rationale first put forward by the new Biden administration, and stated explicitly by Biden himself on Tuesday, is that he doesn’t believe the president has the legal and constitutional authority to write off federal student debt. There is a strong case to make Biden’s constitutional take the wrong one. If Biden thinks he can’t do it technically, it’s hard to dispute that. But maybe that’s the point? As we have seen over the past four years, the Constitution is good like this: you can twist its meaning or twist it however you like and most people don’t know the difference. It is most often used as a shield, not a sword, a justification for doing nothing, for getting bogged down, for the legal status quo. Kind of like all the Republicans who said they really thought Trump was responsible for the Capitol uprising, but damn it, their hands were tied when it came to doing something about it because, as always, the Constitution and someone’s interpretation of something go.

So the Constitution authorizes $ 10,000 in forgiveness for students? It appears the distinction Biden is trying to make is that $ 10,000 is only procedurally justifiable as part of a COVID-19 relief program. “The President has supported and continues to support the cancellation of $ 10,000 of federal student loan debt per person in response to the COVID crisis,” White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said during a briefing in February. He would like to do more, but his hands are tied because of the Constitution and somebody’s interpretation of it somewhere.