Elizabeth Warren Wants To Cancel Up To $50,000 In Student Debt

Source: Boston Globe / Getty

Elizabeth Warren Makes Presidential Proposal To Cancel Student Debt For 42 Million Americans

Sen. Elizabeth Warren is laying out more of her cards in her Presidential run.

According to CBS News, the Massachusetts senator is unveiling a student loan forgiveness proposal that she says will cancel up to $50,000 of debt for more than 42 million Americans. This new proposal would be added to her plan for free college tuition at two and four year public institutions.

The initiatives would cost $1.25 trillion over a decade, according to her staff, and it would be covered by her “ultra-millionaire tax,” which would annually tag a 2 percent tax on wealth above $50 million and a 1 percent tax on wealth more than $1 billion.

According to a Brandeis University study of Warren’s proposal cited by the campaign, more than 95 percent of Americans with student loans would be assisted by her plan. It would also eliminate all debt for more than 75 percent of Americans in general.

Her proposal would cancel $50,000 in student loan debt for Americans with household income below $100,000 along with “substantial” debt cancelation for everyone with household income between $100,000 and $250,000. Households with incomes topping $250,000 wouldn’t received any loan forgiveness.

A big goal of Warren’s plan is to reduce the wealth gap between people of color and White people. Her campaign also argues that the plan would boost the economy by increasing home-buying rates and sparking more business creation.

Many students will already have less debt under Warren’s higher education proposals since she wants undergraduate tuition to be free at two-year and four-year public institutions. She also wants to boost federal grants to assist students with other college-related expenses like books, room and board. On top of all this, her proposal would invest an additional $100 billion over the next decade in Pell Grants.

“Higher education opened a million doors for me,” Warren said. “It’s how the daughter of a janitor in a small town in Oklahoma got to become a teacher, a law school professor, a U.S. senator, and eventually, a candidate for president of the United States.”

A road to debt-free education? Where do we sign?!

Other candidates better come correct.