By: Mildred Robertson
West Virginia Senator and presidential hopeful Joe Manchin, (Yes, “presidential hopeful”…I said it even though he won’t) is being lambasted by conservatives in his state for his promotion of legislation that would offer student loan debt relief. The Smarter Debt Act is aimed at establishing an interactive online dashboard at the U.S. Department of Education to provide future and current students with the information they need to navigate the financing of their education. If enacted this legislation would direct the Department of Education to establish an interactive online dashboard that would help users to more easily access information about existing loan forgiveness and repayment programs.
While the Biden administration has continuously tried to fight the
problem of student loan debt, Senator Manchin has been no student debt relief
advocate. Over the Summer Senator Manchin voted to repeal Biden’s student loan
cancellation plan. He called Biden’s student
loan forgiveness proposal excessive and said that there are other ways to help
people burdened by student debt.
President Biden supports
capping student loan repayment at 5% of the borrower's income. He also proposes
forgiving up to $10,000 in federal student loan
debt for borrowers making less than $125,000 annually and would forgive $20,000
in loans for Pell Grant recipients under the same income threshold. Manchin opposed those proposals saying “I
just thought that it was excessive. I just respectfully disagree
on that.”
While
Manchin positions himself for a possible run at the Whitehouse as a third-party candidate he must balance
his conservative state voters' desires, with the need to appease the more liberal leanings
of the rest of the country. But his West Virginia constituents aren’t having
it. One internet commenter said, “That is one of the reasons that Joe can't
get reelected in WV. I paid for my education and my son's education and I
worked 7 days a week to do it. Why should I have to pay for anyone else's
education. (sic) Typical democrat. Tax and spend and put it on the working
man.”
Unfortunately,
voters who think like this commenter miss the point that underprivileged people
who graduate actually CONTRIBUTE to the economy. Yet their student loans
are so burdensome that many graduates can't acquire a job that will allow them
to afford to pay the loan AND afford homeownership, buy cars, or live the American dream that education purportedly will provide. Also,
many first-time graduates from underprivileged families take on the burden of reaching
back to help their less fortunate relatives, particularly in Black communities.
Further, a well-educated citizenry
contributes to the competitiveness of America. Those graduates too, are paying
into the tax base....at a higher rate than they would have had they not had an
education.
So I am glad that Manchin has decided to accept the ire of his constituents to do something, however miniscule, to relieve the burden of student debt on those struggling to break into or stay in the middle class. Manchin appears to be positioning himself to pursue another elected office where voters might not be as offended by his still Republican-esque right-leaning political philosophy. Don’t be fooled by his lukewarm attempt to address the issue. He could be a spoiler in the Democratic election by running as a third-party candidate.
He was an unreliable advocate for the everyday American during his tenure as a Senator. He would be just as ineffective at advocating for middle-class Americans in any other capacity. A third-party candidate can only muddy the waters in the 2024 election. That election is way too important to let a candidate’s performative politics cause us to end up with Donald Trump back in the White House. Even the unlikely prospect of Manchin himself winning the seat would be a terrible outcome for our nation.
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