United States: Joe Biden announces the cancellation of part of the student debt
US President Joe Biden speaks out on student debt, in Washington on August 24, 2022. © Evan Vucci / AP
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2 mins
It was promised, expected and even requested for a long time.
US President Joe Biden announced on Wednesday August 24 the cancellation of part of the student debt contracted with the federal state.
Two and a half months before the mid-term elections, it is also a political message.
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With our special correspondent in Washington,
Guillaume Naudin
It's been two years since the 2020 presidential campaign that Joe Biden promised to tackle
the subject of student debt
.
And it has been two years that the people concerned have been waiting and expressing their frustration at the slightest opportunity.
Eventually, as another election campaign begins, the president wipes $10,000 off
the slate for people
earning less than $125,000 a year and $10,000 more for scholarship holders.
The president announced his decision on the day of his return from vacation as American students prepare to go back to school, a measure that focuses on the smallest and federal loans, not those taken out with private banks.
He knows and he says it: some will find that it is too little.
He also knows that others will find it too much: the Republicans are all in unison in denouncing a crude political maneuver.
According to them, this measure, which will not apply in the same way to everyone, will also create inflation.
Joe Biden is keen to answer them: “
I will never apologize for helping working-class and middle-class Americans.
And especially with the people who voted for a $2
trillion tax cut, which mostly benefited the wealthiest Americans and the biggest corporations, slowed the economy and didn't do much- thing for growth, which was unfunded and caused a huge deficit.
»
As for abortion, a measure to remobilize the Democratic electorate
Joe Biden has highlighted his recent legislative successes, which he believes will reduce the public deficit.
And above all his promises kept despite the difficulties.
He hopes that this will be, as with the calls to make the question of abortion a central issue in the next elections, likely to remobilize his electorate
for the mid-term elections in November
.
Because after some encouraging results during the primary elections, the Democrats are beginning to believe that they can perhaps do more than limit damage for the general election on November 8th.
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United States
Joe Biden
Education