Sanders vows to cancel $2.3 trillion student debt

Bernie Sanders has unveiled plans to cancel all $US1.6 trillion ($2.3 trillion) of student loan debt and make college tuition free.

Bernie Sanders announces a plan to cancel student debt. Picture: AP

Bernie Sanders has unveiled plans to cancel all $US1.6 trillion ($2.3 trillion) of student loan debt and make college tuition free as he seeks to halt the surge of his main left-wing rival for the Democratic presidential nomination.

Senator Sanders, 77, made the pledge before this week’s first televised debates of Democratic candidates, beating a $US640 billion plan proposed by Elizabeth Warren to pay off some student debts of low- and middle-income graduates. The US economy generated $US20.9 trillion last year.

Both had already set out plans for free university tuition but ­Senator Sanders has gone much further than Senator Warren, a Harvard law lecturer. Senator Sanders, who narrowly lost out to Hillary Clinton in 2016, said his giveaway for 45 million Americans and pledge to future students would be funded by taxes on Wall Street transactions.

Senator Warren, 70, has recently risen above Senator Sanders in some polls of Democrats and into second place behind Joe Biden. The two standard-bearers for the left are jostling for support from the same section of the party, believing that if one cannot knock out the other then they will split the progressive vote and hand ­victory to allow a centrist such as Mr Biden. The TV debates are ­tomorrow (Australian time) and Friday, each with 10 candidates. Senator Warren will be on stage among a field of lesser-known hopefuls tomorrow, while Senator Sanders will face Mr Biden, 76, and Kamala Harris, 54, on Friday.

“This proposal completely eliminates student debt in this country and ends the absurdity of sentencing an entire generation, the millennial generation, to a lifetime of debt for the ‘crime’ of getting a college education,” Mr Sanders said yesterday.

“We will make a full and complete education a human right in America to which all of our people are entitled. The American people bailed out Wall Street; now it is time for Wall Street to come to the aid of the middle class of this country.”

It was seen by some as a desperate move to regain momentum from Senator Warren, who in April set out plans to wipe up to $US50,000 of student loan debt from low- and middle-income graduates, funded by an “ultra-millionaire tax” — a levy of 2 per cent on net worth over $US50m. She says it will raise $US2.75 trillion over 10 years and formulated her plan to avoid criticism by some that universal student loan forgiveness would benefit higher earners.

The proposals from both candidates for free tuition would not stretch to private universities, which often offer bursary schemes for poorer students.

Senator Warren’s rise in the polls may owe as much to an ­ability to reach a wider American audience than Senator Sanders as to her wide and detailed policy portfolio.

The Times