‘Collapse of support’: AOC warns Biden’s poll numbers could signal poor turnout among Dems

‘It is Biden’s power and responsibility to cancel student debt, nobody else’s’

Rep Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez believes Joe Biden is at risk of losing Democratic voters who worked “over time to get him elected” should the US president fail to deliver on key progressive policies, she said during an interview with NY1 Thursday night.

“This is really about the collapse of support among young people, among the Democratic base,” the second-term New York congresswoman told Errol Louis on the NY1 political program Inside City Hall. “They aren’t necessarily being seen.”

Ms Ocasio-Cortez’s response came from a question on Mr Biden’s falling approval numbers, and whether the administration might, or even should, be open to greenlighting some of those more progessive policies, including the cancellation of student debt.

“It is Biden’s power and responsibility to cancel student debt, nobody else’s,” an enthusiastic Ms Ocasio-Cortez replied.

Progressive Democrats, like members of the so-called Squad of progressive lawmakers of whom AOC is the best known, have long been pushing the administration to do away with student debt through executive order.

Since assuming office, President Biden has extended a pause on student loan repayments three times, with the first pause being triggered in March 2020 due to the shuttering of the economy from the coronavirus pandemic. That existing pause is set to expire on 1 May 2022, but, as restless Democrats and advocates for debt relief point out, that ‘pause’ does not translate to a forgiveness.

A frequent point of contention when this distinction is made by debt relief advocates is that the US president campaigned in 2020 by promising the latter, saying he’d “forgive all undergraduate tuition-related federal student debt from two- and four-year public colleges and universities and private HBCUs and MSIs for debt-holders earning up to $125,000”.

Outside of Rep Ocasio-Cortez, prominent progressives within the party, including Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer, Sen Elizabeth Warren and Rep Ayanna Pressley, have continued to pressure the president to reintroduce legislation that would see a more permanent and significant resolution to forgiving student loans.

In February 2021, a bicameral resolution was introduced that called on the president to cancel up to $50,000 (£37,873) for borrowers holding federal student loan debt, which in the US, amounts to nearly 46 million people owing $1.6 trillion (£1.2 trillion).

The New York congresswoman conceded that, though Mr Biden’s numbers are down, there is still time – and hope – that a cancellation of student debt might still be on the table.

“I think the fact that the Biden administration has not been squarely shutting down a lot of these executive orders, does convey an openness,” she said. But, she added, “time for the administration is running out”.

Ms Ocasio-Cortez, by her own admission, stated that while she doesn’t believe in “governing by polling”, she does view the president’s recent numbers as signifying perhaps a larger concern within the Democratic base.

“[Democrats] worked overtime to get this president elected and they aren’t necessarily being seen,” she said.

The president’s approval ratings have taken a plunge recently, hitting a new low this week. The poll, conducted by Reuters/Ipsos, found 54 per cent of respondents disapprove of Mr Biden’s performance as president and only 40 per cent approve.

Ms Ocasio-Cortez also addressed other topics, chief among them the Democrat’s centrepiece re-election issue: shuttering New York City’s troubled jail complex, Rikers Island, as well as voter protection laws, accessible healthcare, rent control and improving the safety of her communities.