New loan, who dis?
Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), who owes thousands of dollars in student loan debt and makes $174,000, has taken the drastic step of appealing directly to President Joe Biden to cancel her loans.
Tlaib and her fellow “Squad” member colleague Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO) recorded a TikTok video on Wednesday in which they purported to be urging Biden over the phone to forgive student loans. The policy would surely be an enormous boon to Tlaib, who owes up to $100,000 in student loans through her law school degree, according to her latest annual financial disclosure from 2021.
“Today, more than 42 million people across the country owe $1.6 trillion in federal student loan debt,” the description for the TikTok video reads. “We’re fighting to make sure yours gets cancelled. #StudentDebt #CancelStudentDebt #Congress #RashidaTlaib #CoriBush #Squad #FYP #Viral #PresidenBiden #WhiteHouse.”
FINANCIAL BOON AWAITS AOC AND OTHER ‘SQUAD’ MEMBERS IF BIDEN CANCELS STUDENT DEBT
Rashida Tlaib, who owes up to $100K in student debt,
urges Biden w/ Cori Bush to cancel her loans on Tiktok pic.twitter.com/aamdtSGfxM— Gabe Kaminsky (@gekaminsky) December 21, 2022
Biden’s roughly $400 billion student loan forgiveness plan would cancel up to $20,000 in federal debt for single people earning under $125,000 and married couples or joint filers earning under $250,000 per year. It is unclear whether or not Tlaib’s video was referring to the plan.
It is also unclear whether student debt cancellation will end up occurring, a policy that Biden unveiled in August. The Supreme Court will hear two major challenges on Feb. 28 to the plan, which has been paused since mid-October. Those cases could decide the cancellation fate of loans for tens of millions of borrowers.
The Washington Examiner reported in July that multiple Squad members stand to benefit from student loan forgiveness, including Tlaib. That report followed a Daily Caller analysis finding that 13 Democratic members owe roughly $1.5 million for their own or a family member’s educational debt.
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“When Members have these type of connections to issues they are directly advocating for, it leads to citizens fairly questioning whether members are advocating for the public good or their own personal interests,” Kendra Arnold, executive director of the Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust, a watchdog group, told the outlet.
Tlaib regularly posts on social media about student loan forgiveness. The congresswoman has called debt forgiveness “a racial justice issue.”
“I will continue to push for education debt cancellation of $50k or more, and I know many people out on the streets will do the same,” Tlaib tweeted in August. “This is not the end, this is just the beginning when it comes to bringing opportunity and equity to all.”
