WC Wisconsin News

A former campaign consultant to President Joe Biden hasn’t been shy in expressing what he thinks is now behind the White House’s student loan forgiveness drive.

John Della Volpe, who now serves as the polling director at the Harvard Kennedy School Institute of Politics, commented that, when considering the possible expansion of abortion restrictions and former President Donald Trump’s renewed influence in the political arena, Biden’s move “adds an additional tailwind to an already improving position with young people,” a recent WEAU report said.

On Aug. 24, Biden officially signed off on a plan that effectively wipes away as much as $10,000 of federal debt for each student, essentially holding true to one of the more controversial pledges he made while still a candidate. The student loan payment freeze has also been extended trough Dec. 31 of this year.

Reaction has been as loud as it has been swift, with even some Democrats criticizing the move by arguing that as a candidate Biden vowed to go even further.

At the same time, Republicans are classifying the move as being another example of the abuse heaped on regular taxpayers, who now find themselves on the hook for all that forgiven debt.

Yet, with upwards of 43 million Americans now bogged down with some level of federal student debt and the president’s public approval ratings sharply on the decline, Della Volpe is selling the move as being about “trust.”

“it’s about trust in politics, in government, in our system,” he said in the WEAU report. “It’s also about trust in the individual, which in this case is President Biden.”

The Republican National Committee blasted Biden’s actions as a “handout to the rich” that further handcuffs lower-income taxpayers by now putting them on the hook for the debts of others, the report said.

Biden’s actions come soon after University of Wisconsin (UW) System President Jay Rothman announced in a press release a tuition assistance program for all UW campuses across the state. The UW program paves the way for students whose households earn less than $62,000 annually to be eligible for last dollar funding that could make their entire tuition bill free for all four years of a bachelor’s program.