AOC's push to forgive student debt will take 'rung off the ladder to the American dream': Hilsenrath

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's renewed push for President-elect Joe Biden to bypass Congress and cancel billions of dollars in student loan debt makes the problem worse, not better, The Wall Street Journal senior writer Jon Hilsenrath argued Tuesday.

He told FOX Business' "Mornings with Maria" that financing for higher education has been "completely and utterly broken" in the U.S. because of politicians like Ocasio-Cortez trying to help out.

"The government, going back to the 50s and 60s, has been trying to make higher ed more affordable for Americans and they've done it by subsidizing loans and instead of making it more affordable, they made it less affordable," Hilsenrath said.

AOC INSISTS BIDEN CAN USE EXECUTIVE ORDER TO CANCEL STUDENT LOAN DEBT

"Forgiving debt doesn't solve any problem because then you're going to have trillions of dollars of new debt that still are going to be written because the government is behind subsidizing all these loans. This town needs a real plan to address this problem because the problem is literally locking so many Americans out of getting a decent higher education. It's taking a rung off the ladder to the American dream," he added.

The New York Democrat said progressives need to push the Biden administration to move further left on the issue after the incoming president said he was "unlikely" to use his authority to fully forgive student loan debt for individual borrowers.

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“We have to push the Biden administration hard," Ocasio-Cortez told Punchbowl News. "This whole thing. ‘We can’t cancel student loan debt’ is not gonna fly.”

Hilsenrath said the government is part of the problem and the "made it so d--- expensive  ... by subsidizing the market and the banks feasted on it ...and the American people got screwed in the long run with all this debt."