AOC had between $15k to $50K in student loan debt while pushing for mass forgiveness

August 16, 2023

Progressive firebrand Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez carried thousands of dollars in student loan debt last year, new financial disclosures show.

During that time, the Bronx and Queens congresswoman was pining for mass student loan cancellation, publicly urging the Biden administration to use unconstitutional executive action to accomplish it.

“I’m 32 years old now,” Ocasio-Cortez complained on the House floor in December 2021. “I have over $17,000 in student loan debt, and I didn’t go to graduate school because I knew that getting another degree would drown me in debt that I would never be able to surpass. This is unacceptable.”

The latest disclosure, filed on Sunday, shows AOC held between $15,001 and $50,000 in debt in 2022.

Ocasio-Cortez, who graduated from Boston University in 2011 with a bachelor’s degree in international relations and economics, earned at least $174,000 in salary before taxes last year.

AOC — Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has long been a rising star among progressives.

In August 2022, President Biden rolled out a sweeping student loan plan that was scuttled by the Supreme Court this past June.

The plan, which the justices ruled could not be enacted without congressional approval, would have forgiven up to $10,000 in federal debt for individuals with incomes under $125,000, as well as up to $20,000 for Pell Grant recipients.

Undeterred, Biden moved forward Monday with an alternative plan to cancel $39 billion in student loan debt for more than 800,000 borrowers after a Michigan federal judge dismissed a lawsuit aimed at blocking it.

AOC tweet — The New York congresswoman has prodded the Biden administration to cancel student loans.

AOC is a self-described Democratic socialist.

Ocasio-Cortez has implored Biden to pause student loan repayments for a full 12 months before they are due to resume Oct. 1 after a more than three-year moratorium due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“There are millions of people in this country that have student loan debt under … $10,000 or $20,000, as outlined in the plan,” Ocasio-Cortez told CNN back in July following the Supreme Court ruling.

“I highly urge the administration to consider suspending those interest payments. Of course, we still believe in pursuing student loan cancellation and acting faster than that 12-month period wherever possible.”