It is up to us to demand a jubilee to wipe out the debts of the masses

Ahead of another charged election cycle, 40 million Americans could see their “October surprise” coming well in advance: a huge student loan bill. When the Biden-Harris administration resumed student loan payments in October 2023 after a nearly four-year hiatus, they introduced a one-year grace period. This “step-up” would protect debtors from the serious consequences of a missed or late payment – ​​such as default, credit damage, social security and wage garnishment or capitalized interest. A year later, these punitive measures were resumed, leaving debtors once again in the grip of the student debt crisis.

But it’s not just student debt that’s burdening our economy and siphoning off workers’ wages to feed greedy creditors. Household debt has skyrocketed in recent years, forcing Americans to borrow to make ends meet for virtually every possible need: housing, health care, subsistence, transportation, or even subsistence. confinement. With a record $18 trillion debt burdening families, people need a debt anniversary now more than ever. Fortunately, debtors have been organizing around these issues for years, with a track record of forcing politicians to listen.

When it became clear this summer that Vice President Kamala Harris would be the Democratic nominee after Joe Biden was cast aside by voters and donors alike, the race to fill the ticket began immediately. Battleground governors – Josh Shapiro in Pennsylvania, Roy Cooper in North Carolina and Andy Beshear in Kentucky – seemed ripe for the taking, but in the end, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz beat Harris. No doubt Tim Walz’s “dad energy” and sharp anti-Republican rhetoric helped him secure a spot on the 2024 ticket, but in many ways, Walz’s legislative record sealed the deal. Notably, Walz, a former teacher, signed a bill into law in 2023 that would provide free breakfast and lunch for public school students regardless of income. This debt prevention measure alone has thrust Walz into the spotlight and brought populist policies onto the national stage.

Before Walz signed that bill into law, that was already Black and Latino families two to three times more likely as white families facing food insecurity. Now Minnesota joins seven other states with a universal school meal program, so kids and their families don’t have to go into debt primarily for chocolate milk and fries. But Walz didn’t pass this legislation alone.

In 2022, Democratic Socialists in the Twin Cities doubled the size of their caucus and won a leadership position in the Minnesota House, bringing progressive legislation like universal school meals to Walz’s desk. In 2017, a woman from Minnesota named Valerie helped drive the meal legislation was introduced after she established a foundation in her son’s honor to support families burdened by primary and secondary school meal debt. Her son, a school nutrition supervisor, had a passion for combating food insecurity, often reaching into his own pocket to meet student needs. That woman, Valerie Castile, is the mother of Philando Castile – who was tragically killed by Minnesota police.

Walz isn’t the only person on the list who has taken notes from activists in seeking policy prescriptions on debt. Approximately 100 million Americans are burdened with health care costs. Medical debt – a concept that does not exist in any other industrialized country – is the leading cause of bankruptcy for households in the US. Although less well known, Harris made tackling medical debt one of her pet projects as vice president, regularly touting it. working with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to remove medical debt from credit scores. When Kamala Harris unveiled her first proposed economic agenda and vision for reducing costs for families in battleground North Carolina, chief among them was a promise to tackle medical debt. Harris adopts an idea first promoted by Occupy Wall Street activists, whose Rolling Jubilee Fund made history more than a decade ago by buying household debt for a few cents on the dollar and then canceling it with no strings attached .

During her 2020 bid for president, Harris was often advertised her work on behalf of students who have been defrauded and left in debt by for-profit colleges. In 2014, the nation’s first debt union — the Debt Collective — organized the first-ever student debt strike in American history. Corinthian College had taken advantage of students and refused to repay their illegal debts while demanding relief from the federal government. Years later, as attorney general, Harris successfully sued the predatory chain, a major domino that eventually toppled the giant rip-off school. Seven years after those debtors went on strike, Harris, then as vice president, helped provide relief for everyone who has wronged Corinthian. And months ago at the Democratic National Convention, one of the student debt strikers spoke during prime time, just before Harris took the national stage.

A jubilee will not simply be handed to the debtors, nor is it likely that national politicians will take action out of the goodness of their hearts alone; we will have to fight for it. And it can be done. Just look at what Debt Collective has been able to gain under a tough Biden administration. Early in his term, Biden said he would not take any steps to pay down student debt. Early on, Biden wrongly confused student debtors with wealthy, white Ivy League graduates who were too privileged to deserve relief. Now Biden is defending the 5 million-plus borrowers whose debts he rightfully forgave, and the White House has scored political points by clapping back at hypocrites like Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green for enjoying PPP loan forgiveness while opposing the cancellation of student debt.

If organized debtors can force a bank-friendly, creditor-loving senator from the credit card capital of the world to take on the Supreme Court over debt cancellation, imagine what organizers can change with the momentum they’ve created. We deserve a Biblical-style jubilee to wipe away the debts of the masses – but it is up to us to demand it.