Elizabeth Warren has proposed a student loan forgiveness program<\/a> that would cancel up to $50K in student loan debt. Warren says that her plan would totally eliminate student loan debt for 75% of Americans who have that debt and would at least reach 95% of Americans with some debt (there\u2019s even a nifty calculator<\/a>). Kamala Harris has a student loan forgiveness proposal<\/a> that would forgive up to $20K in student debt if<\/em> you received a Pell Grant and<\/em> start as well as operate a business successfully for 3 years. The business would have to be in an income-disadvantaged neighborhood. Bernie Sanders also has a student loan forgiveness proposal<\/a>; he wants to forgive all of it. That\u2019s it. There are no formulas, no missives full of technocratic language, and no barrier to entry other than having accumulated student loan debt. To quote democratic strategist James Carville \u201cthe less you say, the more you heard\u201d. Simplicity matters, and the broadest policies with the easiest to understand messages typically beat out complexity no matter how much wonkish nerds at think-tanks spend on market testing for whatever candidate they\u2019re writing policy for.<\/p>\n \u201cBuild the Wall\u201d was and continues to be more effective at energizing voters than \u201ccomprehensive immigration reform.\u201d In 2008, \u201cUniversal Coverage\u201d had a much better ring to it than \u201creplacing the tax exemption with a tax credit to be applied to a health savings account.\u201d There\u2019s a separate argument that can be made about messaging and how that can matter when campaigning. As we\u2019ve seen, voters don\u2019t always care too much what actual legislation looks like as long as they can identify it with the campaign message. This would in part explain why Trump voters are satisfied with current policy on immigration despite there being no new wall construction<\/a>.<\/p>\n However, there are relevant considerations that are obviously more important than messaging such as whether something is good policy. Unequivocally, universal programs are better than means tested programs and that\u2019s why Democrats need to run on them and then fight for them once in government. Whether it\u2019s Medicare-for-All vs. \u201cMedicare-for-All-Who-Want-It\u201d or forgiving all student debt as opposed to forgiving most of it, there are at least 3 reasons why (especially in this campaign) universal programs are better.<\/p>\n This country needs big structural change and piecemeal reforms or tinkering around the edges will not make life meaningfully better for most people. Government ought to be viewed as a tool to make people\u2019s lives better and we should not be afraid of unleashing its power to combat the inherent problems present in our political economic system.<\/p>\n It\u2019s time for Democrats to put down the calculators, delete the Brookings Institute from their Rolodex, and embrace big ideas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Bernie Sanders also has a student loan forgiveness proposal; he wants to forgive all of it. That\u2019s it. There are no formulas, no missives full of technocratic language, and no barrier to entry other than having accumulated student loan debt. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":664,"featured_media":40363,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3027,2071,162,3244,6,113,16],"tags":[1561,3447,193,3446],"yoast_head":"\n\n
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