Briahna Joy Gray, a former press secretary for Sen. Bernie Sanders’s (I-Vt.) 2020 presidential campaign, suggested Wednesday that the Biden administration is not interested in extending the moratorium on student loan payments because it would be a “bad look” that casts doubt on the economic recovery.
“What I have heard recently is that there has been reporting that the reason that the White House doesn’t actually want to extend the student debt moratorium isn’t for any principled reason, but because the administration wants to paint a picture that the economic crisis that the country has been in for the last year or so is actually over,” Gray said on Hill.TV’s “Rising.”
“And the fact of continuing any of these COVID-era programs into the next year is perceived to be kind of a bad look for the administration,” added Gray, who is the host of the “Bad Faith” podcast.
Gray said a second issue surrounding the student loan pause is the question on whether or not President Biden will follow through with his campaign promise to cancel out $10,000 in student loan debt for borrowers.
“By not being willing to cancel large amounts of debt, you’re basically saying the only people who should ever become doctors, lawyers, or any other kind of professional with the hope of perhaps returning to one’s community and doing work there are already affluent, white kids,” Gray said.
“And that is expressly what Joe Biden said when he lamented the idea of paying for kids going to a school like specifically Penn, where he has an honorary position and where his children have been able to go to school.”
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