EDITOR’S NOTE:Every week we post an excerpt from Katrina vanden Heuvel’s column on WashingtonPost.com. Read the full text of Katrina’s column here.
As rising coronavirus cases and the Derailment of the Build Back Better bill In a more subdued holiday mood, the Biden administration made an announcement last week that gave some hope for the New Year. To continued public pressure, it extended to May the moratorium on student loan repayment, which was due to expire in January. With 89 percent of borrowers report that they are not “financially secure” enough to resume payments in the immediate future, the extension will bring crucial relief.
But the move also raises the question: Why restart payments at all?
While many of the government’s solutions to social, environmental, and health crises have to be filtered through our deadlocked Congress, student debt is different. the University Act gives the government extensive powers to end the crisis – without Biden even having to invite Senator Joe Manchin III (DW.Va.) over to dinner.
Read the full text of Katrina’s column here.
.