President Joe Biden made it clear during Tuesday night's CNN town hall that he disagrees with other members of his party who want to cancel $50,000 of student debt per borrower.
"I will not make that happen," Biden said after a member of the audience said his proposal to cancel $10,000 per borrower doesn't go far enough.
But top Democratic congressional leaders, including Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, are calling on Biden to cancel $50,000 per borrower. Dozens of Democrats reintroduced a bicameral resolution earlier this month urging Biden to take action, arguing that he has the executive power to do so.
Biden argues that the government shouldn't forgive debt for people who went to "Harvard and Yale and Penn" -- and he's also indicated that he believes Congress should make changes through legislation, which would make them harder to undo.
"The President has and continues to support canceling $10,000 of federal student loan debt per person as a response to the Covid crisis," White House press secretary Jen Psaki said at a briefing in February after the lawmakers introduced the resolution.
She added that that the President is "calling on Congress to draft the proposal," and "looks forward to signing it." But a later tweet from the press secretary suggested that the administration was open to reviewing an executive option.
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I try to laugh about it, hiding the tears in my eyes.