Hillary Clinton has unveiled her plan for reducing student loan debt and for making college more affordable: tuition will be free at public colleges for in-state students whose families make under $125,000 a year.
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Sanders said the plan combined “some of the strongest ideas which she fought for during the campaign with some of the principles I fought for”. A Tuesday endorsement would come a little less than two weeks before Democrats meet in Philadelphia for the Democratic National Convention.
“The platform today reflects the success of the Sanders campaign, but the ultimate victory of Hillary Clinton”, said Neera Tanden, president of the Center for American Progress and a Clinton appointee to the platform drafting committee.
As the DNC draws nearer, Clinton is going to have to work overtime to try to woo former Sanders supporters to vote for her. It makes flawless sense that she’d start to mimic some of the Vermont senator’s proposals-even ones she’d previously criticized. Clinton press secretary Brian Fallon declined to comment.
This morning Clinton released an updated version of her plan addressing college affordability, which her staff said was the result of meeting and discussing the issue with Sanders last month. “I hope we can reach an agreement on them sooner rather than later”.
Throughout the Democratic primary campaign, Sanders advocated eliminating tuition at public colleges and universities, something he said could be done at a cost of $75 billion annually, funded by a new Wall Street speculation tax.
Presumptive Green Party candidate for U.S. President Jill Stein has reiterated her offer for Bernie Sanders to head that party’s ticket instead, where-unlike in the Democratic party-she says he’d be able to continue to “build a political movement”.
Sanders trounced Clinton in the New Hampshire primary, and holding the event in the Granite State would put the two rivals in a fall battleground state where Clinton will compete against Republican Donald Trump. The campaign didn’t immediately provide further details on how the expanded plan would be funded. It would be phased in over the course of four years, starting with families that earn up to $85,000 and raising the income threshold by $10,000 a year until 2021.
If elected, Clinton would implement a three-month moratorium on federal student loan payments.
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Also Wednesday, Clinton announced plans to make college available at no cost to members of working families, another major pillar of Sanders’ campaign. It will be much easier for Sanders to oversee his political revolution from the comfort of his Senate seat.
