Sen. Bernie Sanders
introduced his most sweeping plan yet to tackle the increasing cost of a
higher education, introducing a bill Monday that would make public
colleges and trade schools tuition free and cancel outstanding student
loan debt for everyone, a proposal that goes beyond one introduced
earlier this year by one of his chief presidential campaign rivals, Sen.
Elizabeth Warren.
At a Capitol Hill news conference, Sanders unveiled the plan to
eliminate all of the $1.6 trillion of student loan debt in the U.S. held
by 45 million Americans. The plan would include all private and
graduate school loan debt and would apply to all persons regardless of
income. The cost, he said, would be paid for by taxing Wall Street
speculation.
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"If the American people bailed out Wall Street, now it is Wall Street to
come to the aid of the middle class of this country," Sanders said,
referencing efforts by the federal government banks and lenders deemed
"too big to fail" during the Great Recession of the late 2000s.
"The millennial generation was told that the only way they would get the
good jobs available is if they received a college education," he
continued. "Unfortunately, that turned out to be bad advice."
