{"id":783947,"date":"2022-08-29T17:45:54","date_gmt":"2022-08-29T17:45:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/radiofree.asia\/?guid=7e813f06709a0fa967db6e2cff27e3cc"},"modified":"2022-08-29T17:45:54","modified_gmt":"2022-08-29T17:45:54","slug":"aoc-says-reversing-trump-tax-cuts-could-fund-cancelation-of-all-student-debt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2022\/08\/29\/aoc-says-reversing-trump-tax-cuts-could-fund-cancelation-of-all-student-debt\/","title":{"rendered":"AOC Says Reversing Trump Tax Cuts Could Fund Cancelation of All Student Debt"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the wake of the White House\u2019s announcement that the Biden administration <\/span>is canceling up to $20,000<\/span><\/a> of student debt for borrowers, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York) reminded followers over the weekend that Congress could fund a plan to cancel all student debt by simply undoing the <\/span>unpopular<\/span><\/a> and costly tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy that Republicans passed in 2017.<\/span><\/p>\n

In <\/span>an Instagram post<\/span><\/a> on Saturday, Ocasio-Cortez encouraged followers to keep fighting for further student debt relief, pointing out that politicians often give huge subsidies to the 1 percent and corporate tax dodgers with little hesitation. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe can keep pushing. Remember that the Biden administration didn\u2019t want to do this *at all.* It was YOUR pushing, YOUR pressure, YOUR organizing that got them to this point,\u201d she wrote. \u201cThey have forgiven far, far more debt for business owners in the form of PPP who didn\u2019t need to meet ANY sort of income requirements or means testing for <\/span>almost $1 TRILLION in forgiveness<\/span><\/a>.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

She added that the price tag for the 2017 Donald Trump-backed Tax Cuts and Jobs Act was higher than the amount of student debt owed by all borrowers in the U.S., according to the Federal Reserve. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMind you, forgiving ALL student debt in the US <\/span>is about $1.7 trillion<\/span><\/a> \u2014 you could undo the 2017 tax cuts for the 1 percent and forgive all student loans plus have money left over to contribute to universal childcare, tuition free college, homelessness, etc.,\u201d the lawmaker said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Indeed, the <\/span>statutory cost<\/span><\/a> of the Trump tax cuts was a towering $1.9 trillion, though that <\/span>figure ballooned<\/span><\/a> to well over $2 trillion after the cuts were passed. The massive tax reform bill slashed the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 21 percent while also giving <\/span>colossal tax breaks<\/span><\/a> to the ultra-wealthy, allowing them to avoid paying tens of billions of dollars in taxes.<\/span><\/p>\n

Progressive lawmakers like Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) <\/span>have tried<\/span><\/a> to restore the pre-Trump corporate tax rate \u2014 which <\/span>is already quite low<\/span><\/a> compared to historic U.S. corporate tax policies \u2014 but have faced resistance from conservative Democrats <\/span>like Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Arizona)<\/span><\/a>, who have close ties to corporate and right-wing lobbyists.<\/span><\/p>\n

Debt activists and progressives have <\/span>also advocated<\/span><\/a> for the cancellation of all student debt. Such a move would not only be a major investment in the middle and lower classes, they say \u2014 it would also be a step toward shrinking the racial wealth gap, and would give justice to borrowers who advocates argue were given predatory loans by the federal government.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ocasio-Cortez further explained that the benefits of President Joe Biden\u2019s student debt cancellation plan don\u2019t extend just to borrowers, but to society at large. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe student loan forgiveness doesn\u2019t impact you. That doesn’t make it bad,\u201d she said, pointing out that many people pay for programs like first time homeowner benefits and Medicare without directly benefiting from them. \u201cWe can do good things and reject the scarcity mindset that says doing something good for someone else comes at the cost of something for ourselves.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

She <\/span>went on to say that<\/span><\/a> if American society isn\u2019t prepared to support student debt cancellation, it\u2019s unlikely that it will be able to face other systemic problems like the climate crisis. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIn light of the ecological, economic, and social challenges we face, our society’s ability to triumph and prevail actually depends on our capacity for SELFLESSNESS over SELFISHNESS,\u201d she wrote. \u201cBecause when crisis finds us (and it always does), it requires us to rely on others, and that will be difficult to nonexistent if you spent your life fighting against our capacity to help one another in many other different ways even if we don’t immediately benefit in the short run.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The lawmaker reminded followers that it\u2019s thanks to activists that the White House canceled student debt at all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1459,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/783947"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1459"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=783947"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/783947\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=783947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=783947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=783947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}