Ilhan Omar Urges Biden Take Executive Action to Cancel Student Debt In Order to ‘Boost GDP by up to $108B Per Year’

Ilhan Omar recently led a group of legislators in sending a letter to President Joe Biden urging the president to take executive action to cancel student debt.

In a tweet today, Omar claimed that if he were to do so, it would “boost GDP by up to $108 billion per year.”

“Cancelling student debt would boost GDP by up to $108 billion per year. It’s time to cancel student debt. All of it,” Omar said.

Omar added, “That’s why Rep. Omar led a letter to @POTUS urging him to release the memo on student debt cancellation and cancel student debt.”

Cancelling student debt would boost GDP by up to $108 billion per year.

It’s time to cancel student debt. All of it.

That’s why Rep. Omar led a letter to @POTUS urging him to release the memo on student debt cancellation and cancel student debt.

— Rep. Ilhan Omar (@Ilhan) October 19, 2021

Omar apparently got her figures from an August article that was published by The Nation where they threw out the figure.

In July, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said that she believed it would take an act of Congress for Biden to cancel student loans.

Nevertheless, Omar wrote in her letter that “Decades ago, Congress voted to authorize the executive branch to cancel federal student loans. Federal student debt can be canceled with the ‘flick of your pen,’.”

“This authority is already being put to use, as it is currently being used to cancel the interest owed on all federally-held student loans. Now it is time for you to honor your campaign pledge and use this authority to cancel all student debt,” Omar urged.

As it stands right now, student loans are on pause after the U.S. Department of Education announced on Aug. 6, 2021, a final extension of the student loan payment pause until Jan. 31, 2022.

According to the department, The pause includes the following relief measures for eligible loans: a suspension of loan payments, a 0% interest rate, and stopped collections on defaulted loans