39 Comments

Just to state the obvious: $39 billion in student debt relief with $1.78 trillion student debt outstanding is insufficient. If Biden wishes re-election, he must forgive student debt or provide an indefinite moratorium on its repayment. Force the next Republican administration (God forbid) to call in this debt. If Biden does not solve this ongoing issue, young people will not vote for him.

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I don't agree with this at all. There is no data saying that the defining issue for Biden with young people is student loan debt. It is one of the many ways he has with engaging and speaking to young people - economy, gun safety, climate, abortion, freedom are among the others - and has clearly tried very hard to address this. If you are going to make a claim like this on here you need to back it up with data, and as a reminder that we did very well with young people in 2018, 2020 and 2022 without having done debt forgiveness.

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I agree, Simon. I suspect based on my conversations with other young people this is similar to the “inflation is high” being a concern for voters but as you dug into the data found voters attributed the *cause* of inflation to the pandemic, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, record corporate profits, etc. and *not* to President Biden.

I feel like young people like me see that the President has worked hard for us on this. We see the GOP has sabotaged the conversation at every turn. If young voters care about debt forgiveness, we are smart enough to follow the evidence to find who is blocking this. If we are outraged at the state of loan forgiveness, we’ll hold the leaders of the Republican Party accountable.

And we need to make sure young people know all this information. We in the younger generations are willing to follow data where it leads, so as info warriors we need to keep being loud and proud about what the President and Dems. have done. They’ve protected clean air and clean water with the Inflation Reduction Act and the EPA pushing for ambitious regulations on dirty energy, they’ve worked hard to protect the freedom to your body and to your health care decisions, they’ve passed protections for the freedom to marry who they want to, President Biden signed the first gun safety legislation in 30 years to protect the freedom to life, and despite fierce GOP opposition the administration has proposed multiple loan forgiveness plans the most recent of which creates monthly savings for middle class borrowers, including $0 monthly payments for singles making a bit less than $40,000/year or $70,000/year for a family of 4. The last provision is to help hard working families, including young families, to make ends meet.

Joe Biden has been a good president and I suspect young people like me realize that when they see the facts. Fellow patriots, keep up the great work spreading this good news so our neighbors know what the choice continues to be: progress or destruction. I know my choice, what about you?

(Let me know if anyone wants sources and I’ll work on finding them)

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Typo: “...to marry who YOU want to...”

Sorry about that. Can’t find an edit button.

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Off topic, but part of the good summer America is having.

Is anybody else her super excited by the early voter turnout in Ohio? Saw a great article this morning (can't find it now, sorry) that quoted multiple election officials and they all said something to the effect of, "We thought turnout would be high, but we didn't imagine it would be this high."

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Jim, I was very pleased to read the article as many are writing postcards for Issue 1. Postcarding is very successful.

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I am usually a postcard skeptic, but this crazy on-cycle stuff seems to me the context in which it might work.

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Pls share if you can

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And another. Both suggesting that turnout seems closer to 30-40% thus far compared to predicted 7-8% as in past August ballot initiatives. https://www.salemnews.net/opinion/local-columns/2023/07/turnout-for-controversial-issue-1-is-hard-to-predict/

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https://votenoinaugust.org

Donate $$$$ here or Volunteer here with SwingLeft and OhioDems to phonebank etc. Man it would be great for Ohioans to stomp R’s in this one and get Abortion secured this Nov.

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I also read and shared. I just started writing postcards for Ohio. This is a good sign as I understand Postcard to Voters has gotten out about 200,000 postcards

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Awesome Claudia! That is great.

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Sorry, Simon. 2% student debt relief is insufficient. You do not need data for this. Here is a relevant article: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/21/business/economy/student-loan-payments-debt-economy.html?searchResultPosition=2 . I have no outstanding student debt. The younger generation, however, is being crushed under unpayable student debt. I will vote for Biden regardless. My children will not vote for Biden unless he does something big for their generation. If this issue is not on the radar screen for the Democrats, they are not engaged.

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You are a scientist, and you say we do not need data to make a claim about something?

Just to be clear - I think it is important Biden do everything he can on student debt, but to assert that young people will not vote for him unless he does is just not backed up by any data. It's a wildass assertion, and I am not going to let it go unchallenged here. As for big for this generation, fighting for global democracy; unprecedented action to counter climate change; getting us through COVID successfully, and creating one of the strongest economies in American history; getting the poverty and uninsured rates to the lowest point in American history while getting the deficit way down; across the board efforts to preserve reproductive health care options as Rs launch a savage attack it; the first major bi-partisan gun safety bill in a generation; significant movement on student debt, and unparalleled investments in jobs that do not require a four year undergraduate degree. For young people, the glass is more than half full, and we will have a very strong record to run on even if we make only modest progress on one of these issues due to GOP opposition and significant legal challenges.

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I do not wish to argue. You and your colleagues are in a position to obtain useful data on student debt. Right now, August 30th looms. Polling on student debt currently would be meaningless, because of the current moratorium on payments. If recent graduates are saddled with college debt payments, what happens to a reasonably good economy? Who will spend money? Please pay attention to this issue.

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Hey ZB, I’m a bit confused as it sounds you and your children do not have student loans? If that’s wrong, please correct me. While I wait, I wanted to give some information since I am a young person with student loans.

Have you followed the Biden Administration’s plan for student loans after SCOTUS decided to block targeted student loan forgiveness? Biden and Secretary of Education Cordona almost immediately announced the SAVE repayment plan to give borrowers breathing room. In a PDF about the plan (linked below), it says “This change means a single borrower who earns less than $32,805 a year ($67,500 for a family of four) will not have to make payments.” Meaning their payments will be $0/month, and later says all other borrowers on the plan will save at least $1,000 a year. https://www2.ed.gov/policy/highered/reg/hearulemaking/2021/idrfactsheetfinal.pdf

Just for context, my understanding is that the vast majority of young people 34 years and younger make less than those values. https://www.bankrate.com/personal-finance/median-salary-by-age/#age

The SAVE plan also expands the pathways to forgiveness for any borrower who continues making payments on time, even if the “payment” is $0/month based on the plan’s guidelines.

I hear you are saying the young people in your life are frustrated, and I think that’s reasonable to be frustrated at the people preventing the relief. My question is have you shared with the young people you care about what President Biden has accomplished for them, including this SAVE plan? I feel like if you do, it’ll be clear to them who is fighting FOR them and who is just fighting them.

Looking forward to hearing back from you. Thank you in advance.

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Hej Matt: thanks for the information! This is very helpful and much more informative than news gleaned from other sources. You are correct: my children have no student debt. I know many young people, however, who are not so fortunate. If the Biden Administration is doing useful things about ameliorating the debt problem, they must be more forthcoming. The economy will take a major hit if young people are saddled with too much debt. Many people will never make enough money to redeem their debts.

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ZB. Biden had a press conferences about the Supreme Court decision and said he would do everything to lighten the blow.

There have been lots of articles describing the options that are available and what was newly available. Emails/notices were sent to borrowers from Biden/Harris with all this information. If you are one who is in the situation, the information is available. This is an engaged, savvy group who pays more attention to this issue for their own financial survival than those who do not. With repayment dates upcoming, they are looking at all their options and know where they have come from. I have kids who are doing just this. They blame an out of control Supreme Court-not Joe Biden

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Your so welcome, ZB! 😁 We’re all working together on this one. I do agree with Theressa on young people being tuned in on this one. I’ll also say, do you think you’d be comfortable looking more into this and offering to point the young people you know in the right direction? They may tell you they already know because of what Theressa said (e.g. I’ve gotten a LOT of emails lol), but I think it might mean a lot to them that you thought of them. It also could help catch anyone from falling through cracks by showing them that they’ve got others who are also looking out to support each other.

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Thanks for the much needed Hopium !😎

I’ve been sharing the link below. RFK JR’s conspiracies are helping to fuel attempted bans on the Covid vaccine Our local GOP is following other large counties in Florida.Trying to take away the right to have the vaccine will only hurt GOP !!💉 You DON’T want to make America Florida !

https://cbs12.com/news/local/brevard-county-gop-covid-19-vaccine-bioweapon-gov-ron-desantis-florida-attorney-general-ashley-moody-treasure-coast-july-13-2023

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This is unbelievable!!! Freedom in Florida seems to be freedom only if you want what the governor is offering.

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Thanks, as always, esp. for focus today on fraudulent 3d party candidate efforts. I commend today's "Civil Discourse" [J Vance], for discussion of new "State Guard" in FL. Looks like a private army to me. Another conspicuous move by - yes, southern - states to defy/attack fed govt, as preceded Civil War I. While my sanity is important to me, what's really important here are the coming generations.

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I became interested in politics at 11 year old because of RFK. I have always been a supporter of the Kennedy's. Then comes RFK Jr. - what a disappointment. I never supproted or referred to him due to his anti-vaccine stance. Why isn't the family stating, more strongly, how they do not support what he is supporting? Surely they must see what a threat he is to our democracy/nation. That video is frightening!

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" Let’s be loud and proud about Joe Biden, and the success of his Presidency, peeps!"

Simon, how can we get "mainstream media' to give some coverage to all the good news resulting in large measure from the work of President Biden's administration? It's not as sexy as Trump's latest antics re all his court issues. It's not as sexy as RFK Jr's rants.

So if not sexy, then how about meaningful? In sales, we learned that a product feature means very little to a prospect if we don't add "which means" followed by a specific benefit to them. "Recession is not on the horizon," which means.........what? to an ordinary American? How do I get this suggestion to folks crafting the messages for Biden's re-election? Thanks for all you do!

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I am very worried about No Labels. I would love to hear subscriber comments on the best way to expose this group for what it is....a spoiler that wants to elect Trump. Joe Lieberman used to be a rational human being, but now is approaching traitor status. And don't get me started on Joe Manchin.

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Hey Annette, honestly, I feel like the moderates they’re trying to get will see through it as long as we as proud patriots are sharing the good news about how President Biden has done: highlighting how he’s signed over 350 bipartisan laws, responsibly navigated the chaos of the MAGA threat to default on our loans, brought back over 13 million jobs, got infrastructure projects to red and blue counties alike, avoided yelling at people on Twitter, and all the other MANY ways Joe Biden has been a good president.

I feel like only 70% max of the Republican voters actually want MAGA. The remaining 30% who want Christy, Pence, Haley don’t want Donald Trump the be the nominee. Those voters are under the impression that former president Trump brought a better economy than Joe Biden. It should be our job to make sure we know who these people are in our lives and share the good news of where the economy is now. I also think we should be highlighting often how calm and sensible Joe Biden is in the face of intense pressure and how Donald Trump and MAGA continue to descend further into chaos, financial ruin (can’t keep state Party’s afloat), and infighting.

The contrast is pretty clear when you have all the data. It’s important we keep sharing the data with our loved ones and our community 😎😁 It will be hard, we have the data to back us up though.

What are your thoughts on my perspective?

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Oh, Matthew, I do agree with your perspective. As they say, however, the devil is in the details. With so many forces lined up against this, including the “main stream media “ it presents a huge challenge. Unfortunately I have several close family members who are not receptive to this message. So, yes, I agree with your strategy and would love to have some tactics to help us figure out how to get this done. Thanks for your message.

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Annette, you are very welcome. I agree this is going to be a hard battle. I am happy to share my strategy thus far, though, I’m not sure if it will help.

1. Know the data really well. I personally prefer to be able to rattle off as many accomplishments as possible, so I follow people that make a habit of modeling that behavior and then I practice doing that myself (to myself, to my spouse, to my friends who think like me, to my friends who don’t think like me but are near me, and now working on my loved ones who are more adversarial. I find the last group hardest for my personality type, but I know they genuinely mean well which helps). I’m considering making false cards, however, I haven’t yet.

2. When I hear someone on news say something false or misleading, I practice using the data I have learned to show how it is untrue. If I find there is something I don’t know about what they said, I research it from a variety of sources ranging from reputable to sources with a reputation for lying. Then I have a better idea of what people who think differently than us have been exposed to, and I’ve got some ideas of what information they haven’t seen that might be helpful.

3. I also try to figure out through conversations what my friends and family each prioritize, as individuals. I know which of them care most about the economy, which ones want things to be fair, which ones dislike banning books and other authoritarian practices. I know who thinks government should get out of peoples’ personal business, who’s hearts are knotted with the Native American tribes, and who values level headed leadership rather than obstructionist chaos. I listen when people truly support our troops and value national security.

I do this to serve my neighbors better. Since I have an idea of what matters to them, I know what news I can best connect with them about. My loved ones from Native American tribes? I celebrated when infrastructure projects came to tribal nations. Care about the economy? Get excited about how well we’ve rebounded with no recession to knock our families back down. Live in rural communities like me? Highlight when our neighborhoods are getting broadband expansion projects funded by the American Rescue Plan and bipartisan Infrastructure Bill.

If you have anyone in particular that you know cares about something in particular, please let me know and we can brainstorm some ideas of what they might care about hearing. If your interested, let me know like 3 things you know are important to them. I’m excited to help because we can only make this happen if we do it together.

Thanks in advance, Annette. I hope this was encouraging, helpful, or ideally both. 😁

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Thanks for the suggestions. Much food for thought. I will "noodle" on it and let you know if I come up with anything we can brainstorm together. This is what I love about this community. It really is a community.

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So I just read (ok..."skimmed") the entire 72 page proposal from No Labels. It sounds so logical, doesn't it? But it is deceiving because (1) it is a siren call to those moderates who support President Biden and won't have any appeal to the MAGAts and (2) I couldn't find any name for a sponsor, donor or endorser. If they are so proud of this, why won't any of them attach themselves to it?

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Simon you are so awesome

Emailed all my friends and yes three friends who used to vote republicans like ten years ago... asking them to share with their friends..

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I'm not going to watch Kennedy because then I'll have that creep in my head, which is exactly where I do not want him and his whack-job conspiracy theories to be. Instead, I'm going to watch Biden's speech at NATO which cut out halfway through due to internet issues. Reading it was inspiring. Watching it more so because it is REALLY, REALLY a relief to hear from someone who is positive, sane, and competent. The rest of these crackheads are mere distractions. Pass the postcards, please. Onward.

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Watch the expression on the face of the guy sitting to RFKs right. You can see the exact moment the thought bubble in his head says “this guy is a kook.”

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Until I saw this video, of RFK Jr., I had no idea of how incoherent and crazy he is. He can't even talk clearly. He's running in the wrong Party.

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Axios has published a new poll that finds 85% of young people blame the Republicans for blocking student debt relief, and only 10% blame Biden.

https://www.axios.com/2023/07/17/young-americans-blame-student-loan-debt-scotus

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ZB, you saw this? 85% of young people in this poll blame Republicans/SCOTUS for the debt relief delay, and only 10% Biden. https://www.axios.com/2023/07/17/young-americans-blame-student-loan-debt-scotus

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