President Joe Biden has begun aggressively promoting his student debt relief plan with less than three weeks before midterm elections, after all but avoiding the subject on the campaign trail while the government worked out kinks in the program.
Biden will promote the initiative Friday at Delaware State University, following a White House event Monday to officially launch the application website. About 12 million people have applied for loan forgiveness as of October 18, according to the president, who said more than 40 million stand to benefit.
But multiple legal challenges, including a lawsuit from Republican-led states, are moving through courts, threatening to halt the effort and throw millions of applicants into limbo. Biden’s late blitz to sign up borrowers also has some Democrats worried the president waited too long to make an impact in the election.
For weeks after the relief was announced, Biden barely mentioned it in speeches -- even when the setting seemed to invite comment. Speaking at a community college in Irvine, California, on October 14, Biden did not mention the initiative. Later that same night, the US Department of Education began beta testing the website, allowing people to begin submitting applications.
“I certainly think there was an argument that it could have been done earlier,” said Chris Scott, chief political officer at Democracy for America, a progressive PAC, noting his group was among those pushing the White House to act sooner.
He said development of the application portal may have led Biden to hold off from pushing the program on the trail. In 2013, Democrats were stung after then-President Barack Obama’s healthcare.gov site to enroll people in health insurance crashed within hours of its launch, drawing widespread criticism.
Election Promise
The Congressional Budget Office estimates the debt relief program will cost the government at least $400 billion, fueling Republican criticism that the relief represents reckless spending.
Even some prominent Democrats have distanced themselves over its expanse. Congressman Tim Ryan, a Democrat in a tight Ohio Senate race, told Bloomberg News in a statement that loan forgiveness “goes too far” by extending aid to six-figure earners.
White House spokespeople didn’t respond to requests for comment on this story.
The initiative makes good on a Biden campaign promise and was hailed by allies as an election-year draw for young and progressive voters, whose support is crucial to helping Democrats retain the House and Senate.
But the White House, which was pressured by progressives and civil-rights groups to forgive higher debt loads, deliberated the scope of relief for months and did not announce it until mid-August, less than three months out from the election.
Allies cheered the final framework, but in the weeks before the application portal launched, the president rarely mentioned the program in speeches even as he regularly rattled off other achievements, including his tax and climate measure and infrastructure funding.
“It’s gotten very little play on the campaign trail,” said Jeanne Zaino, a Bloomberg Politics contributor and political science professor at Iona University.
Building Back Together, an outside group that promotes administration policies, announced Thursday a six-figure ad campaign to encourage people to apply. The blitz on digital platforms will target young Americans in Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin -- three states with crucial Senate races.
“This is an issue that we shouldn’t be running from, we should be leaning into, and especially him,” Scott said of Biden.
The administration initially expected the portal to be ready today to coincide with the Delaware event, but the website was up and running sooner, according to a person familiar with the matter. Biden so far does not have more debt-focused events scheduled, but the White House intends to promote sign-ups in the coming weeks.
Court Challenges
The administration also faces legal challenges arguing that Biden exceeded his executive authority without congressional approval. Biden is relying on a 2003 law allowing the government to forgive some debts during an emergency, citing the Covid-19 pandemic.
Richard Painter, chief White House ethics lawyer under President George W. Bush, said he had “serious concerns” about whether Biden exceeded his powers. Painter said the White House rollout likely was held off while the Office of Legal Counsel reviewed the program’s legality.
The Biden administration notched a win Thursday after a federal judge in Missouri dismissed a lawsuit by six Republican-led states. The judge found the states lacked the legal standing to challenge Biden because they did not show they were harmed by the debt-forgiveness plan.
Separately on Thursday, US Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett rejected a bid from a Wisconsin group to block the plan while its lawsuit went forward.
But there are still other lawsuits pending before the courts and a judge in those cases could stop the plan.
Asked if he was worried lawsuits could halt the effort, Biden on Monday said “our legal judgment is that it won’t.”
With millions having already applied for relief, some Biden allies say the optics of a Republican-appointed judge blocking debt assistance before the midterms could backfire on the GOP.
“You look at so many races that are toss-ups and close, this is the type of thing that pushes it further over the edge in the direction of Democrats,” said Scott, the Democratic strategist.
Electoral Backlash
Touting sign-ups could turn out Democrats, but Biden risks backlash from voters who view the plan as too costly or unnecessary.
A September NBC News poll found 43% said Biden’s debt assistance was a good idea, with 44% opposed. Among Democrats, 78% approved but only 11% of Republicans; with independents, 34% approved and 49% called it a bad idea.
Jay Townsend, a political consultant, said the effort is “enormously popular” with those who will benefit, but “unpopular for those who are not going to get anything,” underscoring the president’s challenge.
Zaino called it “a give-back to the progressives who have supported” Biden. “Certainly in a midterm that’s important to get the base out to vote,” she said.
Kentucky state Senator Chris McDaniel, a Republican, said many trade workers in his district view the policy as unfair to people who couldn’t go to college.
“It’s fundamentally not fair to ask people to pay for a decision that others made that allows them to be a higher-earning individual,” McDaniel said in an interview.
Bloomberg News provided this article. For more articles like this please visit
bloomberg.com.
Read more articles by Akayla Gardner