Data for Progress seems to think so.
Analyzing voter turnout models based on Biden cancelling student debt leads them to conclude it would help him in Arizona, Michigan, Georgia, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania. Possibly increasing youth turnout.
If Biden were to eliminate some or all of federal student loan debt, 59 percent of these young voters say they would be more likely to vote for a Democratic congressional candidate in November.
From a policy standpoint I worry it will be another subsidy to the upper middle class and one that in the long term hurts the Democrats brand with non-college educated voters. In the short term, it’s a shot in the arm or a Hail Mary for an anemic Democratic legislative and political strategy to win the midterms.
Right now doing nothing and cowering in a corner while hoping the other side nominates crazies seems to be netting Dems solid losses in the House and possibly the Senate. This type of cross partisan populism could reinvigorate a depressed base and unlike Build Back Better, all it requires is a stroke of a pen, rather than Manchin or Sinema having an epiphany.
Too little, too late.
The people who benefit don’t vote. Sorry to be harsh, but they don’t.
The people who DO vote are the energized fascists who view this as yet another “liberal giveaway”.
I think the point is to get the people who benefit to vote rather than stay home (assuming of course that it matters since you once again suggested otherwise on another thread today).
I think the reasonable thing to do is cancel the interest, but not the principle. That way folks are still responsible for what they actually paid for without being buried under a lot more.
Rubio has a reform similar to that, I actually think it’s a good idea. No more interest but a flat fee added to the loan at the start so students know the full price ahead of time and automatically enrolling everyone in income driven repayment. There’s also a lot Biden has already done to to reform public service loan forgiveness and make it substantially easier and forgiven billions of dollars worth of student loans already. But again-the message isn’t getting through to the right voters.
Our party always seems to think our accomplishments speak for themselves. We need to push hard on what we HAVE accomplished rather than wring our hands about what we have not been able to.
That seems to be a consensus among some friends of mine, I still think trying something is better than doing nothing. Just as fighting back is better than hoping the GOP comes to its senses or that swing voters will reject it out of course.