>> We give 17 year olds the ability to sign on and sign up for $100,000 worth of debt, and we
think that's responsible policy. 30, I'm 32 years old now, I have over $17,000 in student loan debt.
And I didn't go to graduate school because
I knew that getting another degree would drown me in debt, that I would never be able to surpass.
This is unacceptable.
It is unacceptable, thankfully, we're in a moment, at least as of when we're filming this where maybe
some relief is coming. Maybe in the next couple of weeks, Biden's gonna announce some
amount of relief for maybe people who make up to a certain amount or maybe it would be very limited.
But this is an opening, we're going to try to push as hard as we can to make
it as good as possible. AOC has been on a warpath about this for literally
years. So let's listen to a little bit more about what she has to say about the issue,
>> 65% of all jobs in this country require an education beyond high school.
First generation college students are two times as likely to report
being behind on student loan payments. And 63% of borrowers who made payments with Navient
during the covid forbearance still owe more now than they originally borrowed.
There are hundreds of thousands of people in this country who owe more on their student loans now
than they did when they first took them out. We as a country are profiting off of insurmountable
and crushing educational debt and it is wrong. Four years after graduation, 48%
of black students owe an average of 12.5% more than they originally borrowed greatly.
Looking forward to the Biden administration
canceling student loan debt and no longer advancing the false narratives that student
loan debt is for the privileged. What a ridiculous assertion do we really think that a billionaire's
child is taking student loans? Come on. >> Exactly, that is a piece of misinformation
that is thrown out there to try to derail the entire thing and we're gonna get to that.
But also, she was right to point out like, especially maybe people overseas,
don't know, do you know that like you can pay and pay and pay your student loans
and owe more than you'd initially? Isn't that amazing that we set up the system?
Mother Effin woman dragging in the twitch chat says, I only took out about 17 K.
I owe about 20 now, Lizard Guts took out 7K owes 10
now, this is after paying more than you did. >> No, and like of course a 17 year old is gonna
get locked into some bears interest rates some scheme because they can, they can't even vote yet.
And yet you can get your student loans and you work, people are encouraged to do that
and you're sort of sold a whole string of lies essentially to say that don't worry,
your college education is going to pay that back. Of course the right takes it to say,
well that's why colleges BS and we need to not get lulled into that.
No, no, that's why college should be free and or incredibly affordable.
I mean you look at that number $1.7 trillion and I'm like 1.7 trillion,
wherever I heard that. That's the build back better bill as well.
That's what we can't pass in federal funding to help mostly working class people.
But we have all of this debt. What if we just canceled the debt? And I know
not all of that might be federally held, but like why don't we just cancel that debt? And
then you don't have to do build back. I mean it would be an incredible stimulus to people
and I know we're going to talk about the specifics, so yeah.
>> Yeah and I want to jump into a little bit more of the stuff
that's thrown out there to derail this. The first,
like I literally cannot like send a tweet about how we should cancel without people being like,
well I already paid for mine. I won't allow it and that's what everybody in Fox news is saying.
By the way, as I would say, I am lucky enough that I was able to
get work and despite going to grad school and thankfully in Texas, they have this
legislation that requires a lot of TAS. So my grad school basically was paid for
and I worked very hard since I got out to pay and I've paid off my debt.
And that does not for a second make me want other people to suffer through the same thing,
thankfully I was able to get out from under from, but that is persuasive to a
lot of people that like, well I don't need it. I've already paid for AOC
on Instagram responded that I'm not gonna read the entire thing, but she made some good points.
So she says, I've said it before and I'll say it again, not every program has to be for everybody.
People with apartments pay for first time homeowner benefits. Young people pay for
Medicare for seniors, people who take public transit pay for car infrastructure and by the way,
people who drive cars, pay for public transit, that's how it works.
And she specifically says, if a person is blessed enough to be in a position to pay off their loans,
maybe they have a home now and benefited from first time homeowners programs that
people crushed by student loans, help subsidize
even though they're not able to buy a home because of their student debt.
That's how this works morally and ethically wanting people to suffer just because you did
is a really bizarre way to live your life. And it's a very bizarre moral foundation on
which to place a government, but just realistically everything in government
is you paying for things that you don't personally benefit from.
So the things that you do benefit from are also funded, that's how this actually works.
>> No, and that's why I think that there should not be a means test for this. Meaning I don't
think you should have to earn under a certain amount to get your student debt canceled.
If it's gonna be 10,000, which it seems like it might be because Biden won't do
30 or 50 because that would be far too popular and he would win in a landslide again in 2024.
But it shouldn't be for those who make under x or who are
now starting small businesses and it was like we should not qualify that.
And the reason is that if there are some people
who are more middle income or who are more well off who get this benefit, it's an immediate
buy in. And what happens in this country is that we have social programs that thankfully
do help like Medicaid, the disabled the low income and children.
That's great. But what happens? You've got wealthy people who are like,
why do we need Medicaid? Yeah, because you've never benefited from it. So all they want to
do is obliterated. And what they do is that they then sick middle income people against
the working poor and say, well they're the reason they're getting all these handouts.
And it's a brilliant strategy to divide and conquer. When in reality
just like I believe in Medicare for all, I believe in student debt relief for all,
no matter how much you have taken out, no matter how much you currently earn, no matter if you're
a doctor or a psychiatrist now or if you are, I don't know, working at Buzzfeed, I don't know.
It should be for everyone or whatever you are doing, it should be for everyone
that way there is buy in and that way we can beat
back this propaganda of people are not deserving. >> Yeah, and this is what they always do with with
all the benefits, is that all these people who like elected officials I'm talking about here
where everything that they stand for legislatively benefits the wealthy.
They pick up this one thing is like what's supposed to be their credentials for being
a populist or something. But all it does is it adds layers of bureaucracy,
layers of necessary paperwork, it slows it down, it makes it harder to implement,
just cancel it, Jesus. And so that's what she's pushing for now, she's saying
it to be up to $50,000 per borrower, she said $10,000 and by the way she would prefer more.
But this is what she's pushing for Biden do because she knows even that is going to be
hard to make happen. $10,000 would not amount to a meaningful improvement for many people know,
if you are not. And also by the way in 2019, 97% of all student debt was
held by people earning below the threshold of $150,000 per person and $300,000 per couple.
So it's not even worth it. Like the vast, vast majority is people who don't make as
much money. This reminds me of the free four years of public college and they're like, well we need
to make sure that it doesn't affect the people who make millions. They're not going to Yukon,
they're not, they're just they're not interested in going.
>> But let it affect them. I I think it should be universal. So that rich people have buy in.
I keep on, this is Pete Buttigieg is a stupid line like, we mean to make sure
the rich don't take advantage of the public library, let them go to the public library.
Maybe they'll care and make a donation because your library is struggling and you've got so yes,
make it universal. So there is buying, it's the same thing with education, stop letting the rich
be able to buy their way out of the public system. No, get them involved in that public system