A report over the weekend provided more detail on the much-anticipated
action from the White House on student loans, suggesting the Biden
administration is looking to cancel upwards of $10,000 per borrower but to
limit the benefit to exclude high earners.

Since indicating last week that he’d be moving forward with
an executive order to cancel debt, President Biden has faced sharp criticism
from the right but also from moderates in his own party. Now, with the
introduction of income limits on the table, it seems he’s losing support from
some in the left wing of his party as well. The introduction of means testing
to what was originally imagined as a universal benefit has angered progressives
who think it would undermine the goals of the effort.

At the same time, the income limits, which will likely be
quite high—individual earnings of $125,000 or $150,000, or approximately two to
three times the median household income, are reportedly under consideration—are
failing to assuage the concerns of critics who feel that resources would be
better spent elsewhere, like on payments to non-college-educated workers who
generally earn less than those with degrees, as was suggested by Larry Summers,
Director of the National Economic Council under President Barack Obama.

Since it wasn’t clear that Joe Biden really wanted to do loan cancelation in the first place, it seems there’s only one reason why he’d be staying this course: a belief that the favor he’ll win among some highly educated—and sometimes highly indebted—Democratic voters will drive the turnout his party needs to maintain their majorities in the midterms and beyond.

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