CAN BIDEN BUY VOTES WITH STUDENT DEBT RELIEF? The 2020 Democratic presidential primary race was a bidding war in which the various candidates advocated spending trillions of dollars to enact sweeping progressive agendas. Some agendas were a bit more sweeping than others, but they all amounted to unprecedented increases in federal spending.

Take the issue of student loans. Sen. Bernie Sanders, the most progressive of the contenders, wanted to cancel all $1.6 trillion in student debt — just throw out all student loans for 40-plus million people and somehow make Wall Street pay for it. Sen. Elizabeth Warren pledged to forgive everyone’s student loans up to $50,000. And President Joe Biden, the most cautious of the bunch, promised to “forgive a minimum of $10,000 per person of federal student loans.”