Voters in new poll divided on Biden student debt cancellation plan

by Olafimihan Oshin - 08/31/22 8:54 AM ET

FILE-In this May 20, 2011, file photo, graduates from various institutions toss their hats in the air in Philadelphia. Many graduatues are burried in student loans, but Joe Mihalic, a business school graduate paid off $90k in student loans in 7 months and blogged about his experience at NoMoreHarvardDebt.com. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)

Americans are divided on how they view the Biden administration’s new student debt cancellation initiative, according to a new Morning Consult-Politico poll.

The poll, published Wednesday, found that 48 percent of respondents agree with Biden’s move to cancel up to $20,000 in student loan debt for borrowers who earn less than $125,000 annually and households who earn less than $250,000 annually.

Forty-three percent of those surveyed said they oppose the plan of canceling student loan debt for those individuals, and 9 percent of respondents said they have no opinion on the matter.

Along party lines, 72 percent of Democrat respondents said they agreed with the proposed initiative, while just 19 percent said they oppose the move.

Sixty-seven percent of Republicans said that they oppose canceling the debt, while 26 percent of Republican respondents showed support for the proposal.

Seventy-three percent of respondents who currently owe student loan debt said they agree with the administration’s initiative, while 22 percent said they were opposed.

The poll comes after President Biden announced last week he would forgive up to $10,000 in federal student loan debt for borrowers who make less than $125,000 annually, or households making less than $250,000, and $20,000 for borrowers within that income threshold who are Pell Grants recipients. He also announced an extension of the debt payment pause for at least four months. The payments have been on hold since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The initiative has sparked criticism from Republicans, as well as some Democrats, that it is unfair to borrowers who already paid off their loans and that it will negatively affect inflation, while more liberal Democrats say the Biden administration isn’t going far enough.

Seventy-seven percent of respondents said they support developing a plan to lower the costs of higher education in the U.S., compared to 14 percent who disagreed.

The new Morning Consult-Politico poll was conducted from August 26 to 28 with a total of 2,007 respondents participating in the survey. The poll’s margin of error is plus or minus 2 percentage points.