Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas, on Tuesday criticized legislation to erase $1.6 trillion in student loan debt, saying that the plan places a burden on people who don’t have degrees or already paid off their loans.
Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., one of the front-runners for the Democratic presidential nomination, on Monday announced a bill to cancel student debt, co-sponsored by Reps. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., and Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., and has support from New York Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. His bill comes about a month after his rival for the nomination, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., unveiled her own plan to ease student debt.
“When you say [cancel student debt], you’re saying a minority of people who had the advantage of obtaining a degree should have their debt paid off by hardworking taxpayers, 2/3 of whom don’t have degrees themselves, or already paid their own student debt off,” Crenshaw tweeted on Tuesday, adding, “this is immoral.”
Sanders tweeted on Monday, “During the financial crisis, Wall Street received the largest taxpayer bailout in American history. Now it is Wall Street’s turn to help rebuild the disappearing middle class,” with the hashtag “CancelStudentDebt.”
“This is truly a revolutionary proposal,” Sanders said Monday, according to The Washington Post. “In a generation hard hit by the Wall Street crash of 2008, it forgives all student debt and ends the absurdity of sentencing an entire generation to a lifetime of debt for the ‘crime’ of getting a college education.”