Rep. Jayapal joins Bernie Sanders in bid to erase all college debt
Jun 24, 2019, 9:15 AM | Updated: 10:26 am
Washington Rep. Pramila Jayapal joined Bernie Sanders Monday, to unveil a new proposal to eliminate over $1.5 trillion of student debt nationwide.
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Alongside Rep. Ilhan Omar, Jayapal will be sponsoring and introducing the legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives, as companion bills to Sanders’ core proposal in the Senate.
“We must address the scale and magnitude of this crisis,” Rep. Jayapal said in a Monday morning press conference.
The bill would erase student debt for approximately 46 million students in the United States. That would include all private and grad school debt. The proposal would pay for itself by imposing a tax on Wall Street, which Sanders claims would raise over $2 trillion in the next 10 years.
Jayapal spoke of the burden placed upon the next generation of leaders in the U.S., and the hope to relieve enough pressure to encourage positive growth.
“Even though we know we depend on these next generations to be our innovators, [and] our creators, instead, we are putting out a giant trap for people to walk into,” she said. “As a nation, we are killing ourselves by draining the enthusiasm, innovation, creativity, and potential of our next generation.”
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Student debt in America has ballooned over the last decade, growing from $600 billion to almost $1.6 trillion today. This latest proposal to eliminate that debt would represent the most aggressive measure from any politician in the U.S.
“Let’s free the generations to come, let’s invest in our future, let’s be bold and revolutionary, and create real opportunity,” said Rep. Jayapal.