Bernie to Student Loan Sharks: Drop Dead
Bernie Sanders, Ilhan Omar, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Pramila Jayapal just introduced a plan to completely eliminate student debt. Now let’s fight like hell for it.
Bernie Sanders speaks to the crowd during the 2019 South Carolina Democratic Party State Convention on June 22, 2019 in Columbia, South Carolina. Sean Rayford / Getty Images
Earlier today, Bernie Sanders and Reps. Ilhan Omar, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Pramila Jayapal announced a plan to completely cancel all $1.6 trillion of student debt. Funding for the program would come from a Wall Street speculation tax.
“If the American people bailed out Wall Street, now it is time for Wall Street to come to the aid of the middle class of this country,” Sanders said at a press conference.
US student debt has more than tripled since 2006, now at over $1.5 trillion — almost 8 percent the size of the country’s GDP. Meanwhile, real wages are up less than 7 percent over the same period, and rents are up more than 47 percent in real dollars.
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