‘With the flick of a pen’: House progressives urge Biden admin to move on cancelling student debt

A coalition of progressive House members is urging the Biden administration to move forward with a student debt cancellation program, a measure one congresswoman claims President Joe Biden could accomplish “with the flick of a pen.”

Minnesota Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar on Friday posted a letter to Twitter signed by nearly two dozen members of Congress, one that calls for the release of a Department of Education memo that reportedly examines “the extent of the administration’s authority to broadly cancel student debt through administrative action.”

Noting that many Americans are struggling to make debt payments that have been largely suspended over the past year and a half due to the COVID pandemic, the letter argues that “with a single signature, [Biden] can improve the economy, create new jobs, transform the lives of 45 million Americans, narrow the racial wealth gap, and maintain the trust of voters.”

“Cancelling student debt is both the  morally right and economically sound thing to do,” the letter states.

The total amount of student debt in the U.S. stands at around $1.6 trillion.