We're fresh off Joe Biden's student debt cancelation plan.
And it's going to help a lot of people.
Something like 40 million people will get some amount of cancelation.
Over 10 million will have their entire student debt vanish, and that is great.
But there's obviously still a lot more that can be done.
And there is the sort of seductive allure of complacency.
We already won.
So do we really need to push?
Well, some are already pushing back against that, almost preemptively.
Including representative Alexandria Ocasio Cortez.
Who sent an email over the weekend to her supporters saying this,
it is now up to us and to you to decide if we're going to stop here or
if we're going to keep pushing.
I'm very grateful for this watershed moment of a first step.
It is encouraging, thrilling, and has already changed so many people's lives.
But I'm also thinking about how this still leaves a question mark for
those in the highest amounts of debt who need the most amount of help.
Remember that the Biden administration didn't want to do this at all.
It was your pushing, your pressure, you're organizing that got them to at this point.
They have forgiven far far more debt for business owners in the form of PPP loans,
who didn't meet any sort of income requirements or means testing for
almost $1 trillion in forgiveness.
And here is where it gets interesting.
She has sort of an idea of what we could do as a next step for cancelation.
She says, mind you forgiving all student debt in the US is about $1.7 trillion.
You could undo the 2017 tax cuts, for the 1%.
And forgive all student loans plus have money left over to
contribute to universal childcare, tuition-free college homelessness etc.
And because I know the right would love to find an opportunity where they can say
that she was wrong, and dumb, and stupid, and a woman.
She is a woman I checked.
But, no, she's not wrong.
The numbers do check out.
The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, signed into law by Trump back in 2017,
is projected to cost around $1.9 trillion over a decade.
Total U.S student loan debt is currently around $1.75 trillion.
So, you could do that.
You could get rid of all the student debt.
And then pay for four years of free public college for the entire country for
two or three years.
What a deal?
And all you lose is tax cuts that went to the richest people in the history of
people.
>> Yep.
>> Francesca, What do you think?
>> Just incredible that we're stuck with that tax break.
Those tax cuts for the wealthy for another, whatever it is, seven years?
But I think AOC is absolutely right to bring this up.
The numbers line up.
The tax breaks to the wealthy are even more expensive than actually canceling
all student debt.
And if nothing else, it's an important exercise for us to imagine, right?
>> Mm-hm.
>> It's important to put out a vision.
It's important to actually say the thing that maybe it's, no, we can't,
we can't undo that.
Why not?
Let's look into it?
And let me just say one of the things that was in that $1.9 trillion tax break for
the wealthy, was the ability, between 2017 and
2026, to write off the whole cost of a private jet.
That's right.
I did a story when Kylie Jenner was taking those short flights.
And we talked about Elon Musk taking those short flights.
And every other celebrity.
That are something like $60 to $70 million of how much those jets cost.
They are completely tax free.
>> You can write them off your taxes.
>> Yeah. >> Completely.
And that was deliberately written into that 2017 tax break for the wealthy.
So not only is it costing us in terms of our taxpayer money and
our tax base, but it's also costing us in terms of carbon emission.
>> Mm-hm.
>> And the future of the planet in so many ways.
You could argue that rescinding that tax break wouldn't just help,
let's say students, but it would help all of us.
The less wealth hoarding you have in this country and
around the world, the better things are for the planet, for
democracy, for the economy generally, for our own survival.
You could argue you're giving this break to the worst people.
The people who obviously deserve it the least.
>> Yeah, 100%.
You're being a little bit unfair when you pitch it as the tax break loophole on
the jets for rich people.
If a student bought a private jet, they would be able to write it off too.
So it's equitable in that way, it applies to literally everyone.
>> Anyone can buy one.
But yeah, 100%.
And, again, all of the tears, and we're gonna spotlight some in just a moment.
About a couple $100 billion in cancelation,
was $1.9 trillion out the door.
People didn't want, it's not popular.
It's obviously not helping the economy.
And they only do it, to be fair, every time a Republican wins the presidency.
So,- >> Yep.
>> And that'll be true for the rest of your life, by the way.
If a republican gets in,
they don't often do much because they've already won this game.
There's not much you need to do when you've won.
But they'll take more money, they will take more money.
And I mean literally, not just figuratively.
They will take more money from you and from the government.
So, get ready for that.
But, yeah, no, I would love to see some next steps.
Including things like there's all this great stuff beyond just the cancelation.
Like the fact that now after 10 years of payments, if you have below $12,000 of
original debt, it wipes out the rest, that sort of thing.
What I would say is, why is that $12,000?
If it's 12,000, could it not be 15,000?
>> Yeah. >> Could it not be $20,000 or $30,000?
Then you're still locking people into 10 years of debt payment.
And then maybe we get rid of it.
Can we debate where exactly that line should be?
I think that we can do that as a country.
[MUSIC]