Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders has announced his plan to cancel $1.6 trillion in student loans by levying a tax on Wall Street financial transactions, including trading stocks and bonds.
Outside the U.S. Capitol Monday, Sanders outlined how the country’s young working people are living with more debt and lower wages than their parents, all because of the burden accrued by seeking higher education.
“That is why this proposal completely eliminates student debt in this country and ends the absurdity of sentencing an entire generation, the millennial generation, to a lifetime of debt for the crime of doing the right thing,” Sanders said.
Sanders, who is running for president, was accompanied by progressive Democrats from the House, Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., — who plans to introduce student debt elimination legislation — Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., as well as advocates supporting the proposal.
Sanders’ plan would entail the federal government paying off all student debt held by 45 million people in the U.S. from attending private and public universities as well as graduate programs.
The proposal would also make public education, community colleges, and trade schools free to attend.
The Sanders’ presidential campaign says the government can afford to pay off the $1.6 trillion in debt by imposing a tax on Wall Street that would raise $2.4 trillion over the next 10 years.
Sanders’ Wall Street tariff would work by placing a 0.5% tax on all stock trades and smaller fees on trading bonds and derivatives.
“The American people bailed out Wall Street. Now it is time for Wall Street to come to the aid of the middle class in this country,” the Vermont senator said.
During Sanders run for president in 2016, calling for free college tuition and debt forgiveness was regularly part of his stump speech and national policy agenda.
But during his campaign this year, Sanders has spoken more about general income inequality and the need to raise the minimum wage to $15 per hour.
Other Democratic candidates — including Sens. Elizabeth Warren, Kirsten Gillibrand, along with Reps. John Delaney and Seth Moulton — have already said they support student debt forgiveness plans.
Warren, who released her proposal for debt forgiveness in April, has said she would cancel up to $50,000 in student debt for 42 million Americans. The Massachusetts senator’s plan would be paid for by an “Ultra-Millionaire Tax” of a 2% annual tax on people with $50 million or more in wealth.
In Congress, among the more progressive lawmakers, the idea to make public college tuition free and cancel Americans debt — long trumpeted by Sanders — has also become more popular than it was three years ago.
“I will be completely honest. I will disclose my personal stake in this fight because I have student loans too,” said Ocasio-Cortez, the new lawmaker from New York, alongside Sanders. “It was literally easier for me to become the youngest woman in American history elected to Congress than it is to pay off my student loan debt.”
“I don’t think that is the bar through which a person should be able to access education, health care, and a bevy of other things considered human rights,” she added.
