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Floor Speech
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Ms. WARREN.
President Biden's decision to cancel up to $20,000 of Federal student debt for as many as 43 million Americans with incomes under $125,000 a year is a historic step to delivering life-changing relief to working families and to helping rebuild America's middle class.
Senator Scott's bill is just one of the Republicans' desperate efforts to block cancelation for millions of Americans. Now, the Republicans are happy to pass out tax breaks and regulatory loopholes for billionaires and giant corporations, but they are fighting tooth and nail to keep working families from getting a penny of relief.
Evidently, Senator Scott believes that $2 trillion in Republican tax cuts that were not paid for is fine so long as those tax cuts are aimed mostly at millionaires, billionaires, and giant corporations. But a program that costs a fraction as much and for which 90 percent of its benefits go to people earning less than $75,000 a year is now somehow a moral outrage.
Today, he claims to worry about those taxpayers who he says will shoulder student loan cancelation, but where was Senator Scott, or then-Governor Scott, when Donald Trump and the congressional Republicans handed out $2 trillion in tax breaks to billionaires and giant corporations, not a penny of which was paid for? Where was he then?
Well, he endorsed the Trump administration's plan to cut taxes for corporations, and he celebrated those tax breaks for the richest among us. He wasn't worried about how taxpayers would pay that off--not a word about the fairness for all of the people who would bear that burden, so long as the benefits went mostly to the rich and powerful.
Senator Scott has basically laid it all out there for America to see, and that difference--helping billionaires or helping working families-- pretty much sums up Republican and Democratic differences across the board. If we are cutting a break for the rich and the powerful, the Republicans are on board. If we are trying to help out working people, congressional Republicans take to their fainting couches and claim to be so worried about the national debt.
Student loan cancelation is very popular in America, including with a majority of people who have no student loan debt. That is because there is scarcely a working person anywhere in America today who does not know someone who is choking on student loan debt. Yet, evidently, the Republicans in Congress live in bubbles that prevent them from meeting any of the millions of people out there who have busted their tails, who have worked multiple jobs, who have made their payments, and who still watch their debt loads continue to climb.
So let me just set the record straight here. I want to repeat an earlier point. Nearly 90 percent of relief dollars from President Biden's cancelation will go to Americans earning less than $75,000 a year, and none--none--of the help goes to people making more than $125,000 a year.
Now, actually, those numbers shouldn't be shocking. Think about who owns student loan debt. Senator Scott talked about Harvard multiple times in his speech, but it is not the wealthy people who go to Ivy League schools who end up with the student loan debt. It is middle- and working-class Americans who were born into families who couldn't afford to pay out-of-pocket. In fact, 99.7 percent of borrowers did not attend an Ivy League school. So that would mean--what?--three-tenths of 1 percent of people who went to Ivy League schools borrowed money.
By comparison--I just looked it up while the Senator was speaking--at the University of Florida, 15 percent have to borrow in order to make it through to graduation. At Florida State, 26 percent--that is one in every four people at Florida State--has to take out money in order to be in college. At Florida A&M, the numbers are even higher: 68 percent. More than two-thirds of the people who are in school have to take out money in order to make it through college. This is true across the country. At State schools, about half of all students have to borrow to make it through. At historically Black colleges and universities, the number is about 90 percent.
So let's be really clear about who exactly congressional Republicans are trying to take relief away from. It is not Ivy Leaguer doctors and lawyers. Who are the people the Senate Republicans say aren't worthy of the kind of help that billionaires and giant corporations could get in their big tax package? Who do Senate Republicans think should be squeezed harder? Who do Senate Republicans say should simply be left behind?
Well, the Senate Republicans want to leave behind the 42 percent of borrowers who do not even have a 4-year college diploma. These are folks who took out money--loans--in order to become a nurse's aide, to become a mechanic, to go to beauty school, to get a commercial driver's license to drive a truck, and, too often, the wages that they were promised never materialized.
Senate Republicans say: Let them struggle. Leave them behind.
Who gets the most help under President Biden's cancelation? Senator Scott said this is all about doctors and lawyers. Let's take a look at that.
The share of student loan borrowers who earned a cosmetology certificate is about double the share of borrowers who got professional degrees in law and medicine combined.
Senate Republicans say: Let those cosmetology certificate holders struggle. Leave them behind.
Similarly, there are more student loan borrowers who took out debt to earn a certificate for driving trucks and working on the railroad than those who did so to become dentists and optometrists.
Senate Republicans say: Let those truckdrivers and railroad workers struggle. Leave them behind.
It is not just the people who have 2-year degrees or certificates who get help under President Biden's cancelation. It is the people who don't have any degree at all. These are people who did everything our country asked them to do by graduating from high school and advancing their educations, but life happened: They got pregnant or they had to take care of a sick family member, and they had to leave before finishing their degree.
Senate Republicans say: Let them struggle. Leave them behind.
Who gets help? It is women, who hold nearly two-thirds of all outstanding student loan debt. Black women, in particular, shoulder a disproportionate amount of the student loan debt burden--Black women, who hold more debt than any other group.
Senate Republicans say: Let them struggle. Leave them behind.
Who gets help? It is Black Americans, who borrow more money to go to college, borrow more money in college, and have a harder time paying it off after college. They are the ones who will see their debt eliminated under President Biden's cancelation plan. Senate Republicans say: Let them struggle. Leave them behind.
Who gets help? It is the 50 percent of Latino borrowers with debt who will see their student loan debt completely eliminated. Senate Republicans say let them struggle. Leave them behind.
Who gets help? It is the millions of people who couldn't save for retirement, or buy their first home, or start a family because of student debt. Senate Republicans say let them struggle. Leave them behind.
We are living in a moment when the President of the United States has reached out, literally, to tens of millions of families and said: I am putting government on your side. But the congressional Republicans are determined to make this country work even better for the rich and the powerful. That is why they are trying to pass the bill that Senator Scott has advanced.
These Republicans are all for giving handouts to giant corporations and billionaires. But the minute--the minute--that our country creates a little breathing room for the millions of hard-working people whose biggest sin is they tried to get an education and they grew up in a family that just couldn't afford to pay for it, those Senate Republicans are right here on this Senate floor trying to undo it.
I want to take a minute and just look at the bigger picture to see how we got here.
We have a student debt crisis because our government stopped investing in higher education and began shifting the costs of college onto working families.
I went to a great public university that costs $50 a semester--a price I could pay for on a part-time waitressing job. I got to become a teacher, a law professor, and a U.S. Senator because higher education opened a million doors for a kid like me. But that opportunity no longer exists in America.
Today, college costs thousands, even tens of thousands, of dollars. And instead of investing taxpayer dollars to help bring down those costs, the State governments reduced their financial support, and the Federal Government told everyone to borrow the money they needed to cover the rising costs of going to school. That has left millions of Americans drowning in student loan debt.
What is worse, families have had to navigate a broken student loan system riddled with bad actors who are trying to take advantage of and profit off keeping them in debt.
During the Trump years, Betsy DeVos, the Secretary of Education, threw in with the for-profit schools. And when students who had been cheated asked for some help, she turned her back.
I have long pushed for more accountability and more oversight to bring down the cost of college and to make higher education and training programs more accessible. I have a plan for that. In fact, I have more than one plan for that, and I welcome any Republican to join me in helping make any of these options reality.
But cancellation is the first step to fixing a broken student loan system and to delivering relief to families who have been trapped in it for far too long.
One final point: The President's plan to cancel student debt will make a huge difference for tens of millions of Americans in their day- to-day lives. But it will do so much more. Debt cancellation is about strengthening our whole economy. Better educated workers make us a wealthier nation and one with more opportunity, not just for those at the top but more opportunity for everyone.
Just consider one example. Following World War II, a grateful nation said to returning GIs that taxpayers would pick up the cost of college and technical training. More than 2 million veterans went to college or graduate school and nearly 6 million used this opportunity to pursue vocational training to become construction workers, electricians, mechanics, and other careers. Together, these men--and they were nearly all men--built America's middle class.
Taxpayer investments in post-high school education meant that millions of people were better educated, and they helped fuel an economic boom that lasted for decades and lifted this entire Nation. And it was a bargain. Every dollar that was spent on educating our veterans generated $7 to taxpayers. That is not even counting for the significant boost to productivity from a more educated population. Just think about that: a 7-to-1 payoff for investing in higher education for all our people.
President Biden saw something that he could do to help tens of millions of Americans struggling under the weight of student debt and invest in the future of our economy, so he did it. Debt cancellation was the right thing to do. That is why the majority of Americans--with or without loans--support cancellation.
I am celebrating because cancellation will provide life-changing relief for working families across this country.
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Ms. WARREN. So I am still waiting for an answer to the question: Where were these Republicans who were talking about fiscal responsibility and what is fair in terms of transferring costs, when it was the billionaires and the giant corporations who were getting a $2 trillion tax break?
Let us remember--because I was here when that happened--even the conservative economists and think tanks were saying this is going to go on the debt balance because it is not paid for.
No. At that moment, they were willing to say: But it is going to produce all kinds of wonderful benefits--which, of course, did not come to pass.
What about the example I gave, the example about the investment that we made as a country in our returning veterans; the fact that we invested so 2 million of them could get college diplomas, so that millions more could get technical degrees? What about the fact that the numbers show American taxpayers got a return on that investment of 7 to 1? This really is about who we invest in.
It seems that what Senator Scott is saying is people shouldn't go to school. If you are in a family that you can't guarantee that you are going to have some assets to back you up, if you ever have to think about the fact that you might get sick, you might fall down, you might get hurt, and you might not be able to finish, or you might not be able to turn that degree into a high-paying job, or you might graduate at a moment when the economy is in a slump, what Senator Scott seems to be saying is: Don't order off that menu. Don't go to school. Don't try to get a post-high school certificate in cosmetology. Don't try to get a certificate for truckdriving school. Don't try to get a 2-year diploma. Don't try to get a 4-year diploma. That is not going to make America a better or richer country. That is not going to be an America that is going to open opportunities.
The next time Senator Scott or any other Republican talks to me about fair, I would ask them to explain to me what is fair that the daughter of a janitor a half a century ago could go to a good 4-year college on $50 a semester? Why? Because American taxpayer invested in those public colleges and universities. And today that opportunity is not there for a single one of our kids.
When you want to talk about who has college debt, instead of talking about the three-tenths of 1 percent of Ivy League grads who have college debt, look at the 68 percent of Florida A&M grads who have college debt. That is shameful. We need to be an America that is about creating more opportunities, not closing them off for tens of millions of people.
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Ms. WARREN. Mr. President, would the Senator yield for a question?
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Ms. WARREN. Mr. President, I want to ask the Senator if he believes that the 68 percent of students at Florida A&M University who have student loan debt should never have gone to college because it turns out their families couldn't afford to pay for college in Florida.
Should they just never have tried?
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Ms. WARREN. Mr. President, can I ask for a clarification of that answer?
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Ms. WARREN. So, among the 68 percent of Florida A&M students who have student loan debt--I believe I heard the Senator say he made it possible for them to afford college, and I am wondering if he could explain how they could have afforded college without taking on that whole student loan debt.
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Ms. WARREN. Mr. President, you know, I really do think about this transfer question, and I find myself asking: Who paid for Jeff Bezos's yacht? Is it the taxpayers who said: Now, we--America's middle class, America's working class--are actually going to have to pick up the slack. And they will be the ones who have to pay to keep the military. They are the ones who will have to pay for roads and bridges. They are the ones who will pay for investment in science. But the billionaires can get richer and richer and richer and pay little or nothing in taxes. That is a giant transfer, and yet none of our Republican colleagues seem interested in talking about that transfer and just putting a stop to the outflow from hard-working, middle-class families over to the billionaires and the giant corporations.
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