Bernie Sanders is a household name across the United States. The Vermont Senator, who claims allegiance to no political parties as an independent, has held the position since 2007. Before then, he was a member of the United States House of Representatives from 1991 to 2007.

Although many don’t agree with his progressive views, it’s rare for Americans not to know who Bernie Sanders is.

Having run unsuccessfully for United States President in 2016, having been beat out by Hillary Clinton as the Democratic Party’s nominee for President, Bernie is seeking a win in his second overall – and consecutive – run at the role of President, the leader of the executive branch of government.

One of the most central promises that Bernie plans on running for President on is that he wants to get rid of the entirety of student loan debt in the United States, which is collectively worth $1.6 trillion.

He came out with a plan to relieve both graduate and undergraduate student loan debt for some 45 million Americans yesterday, on Monday, June 24, 2019.

People will be eligible to have their student loans forgiven completely, no matter whether they are from private lenders or were serviced by the United States federal government.

At this point, Bernie Sanders’ plan is nothing more than an idea. Soon, the independent Vermont Senator will formally share the proposed legislation with the members of the House of Representatives.

This Isn’t The First Time Sanders Has Tried To Get Rid Of Outstanding Student Loan Debt

Back in 2016, when he was running for the role of United States President, Bernie had come forth with what he coined as the College For All Act, which would have made tuition completely free for all Americans who wanted to attend public colleges and universities across the 50 states.

In the eyes of Bernie Sanders, all tuition and fees that universities and colleges that offer four-year degrees, as well as community colleges, should be free for every American who wants to attend them.

Further, the interest rates on federal student loans should be much lower. As part of this, the United States federal government should not legally be able to turn a profit on its student lending activities. The third main idea behind Sanders’ view of how colleges and universities in the United States should be is that people in student loan debt should more readily be able to refinance their student loans to ultimately save them more money.

Does The Debt Disappear, Or Does Someone Pay For It?

While it’d be awesome if the entirety of the country’s student loan debt would disappear, the debt will, under Sanders’ recently-proposed plan, be paid off by nominal fees on the trading of derivatives, bonds, and stocks.

All stock trades that take place in the United States would include a fee of 0.5 percent, with bond trades having a fee of 0.1 percent tacked on, and derivatives trades being packaged with a fee of 0.005 percent. Over the next decade, if the plan were to be implemented today – which it most certainly won’t be – as much as $2 trillion could be raised.

This amount would be far more than enough to pay for the entirety of outstanding student loan debt across the United States, by a factor of at least $400 million.

Senator Elizabeth Warren Has Another Plan

Although Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren, who represents the state of Massachusetts, also wants student loan debt to be eliminated, she has devised a rough plan of her own together rid of college students’ mountain of debts.

Just two weeks ago, Senator Warren proposed canceling student loan debt for upward of 95 percent of borrowers who currently have outstanding student loan debt. Some 75 percent of Americans who currently hold student loan debt would have their debts relieved entirely.

According to Warren, who also plans to run for United States President as a member of the Democratic Party, the canceling of most outstanding student loan debt would reduce the wealth gap between Americans. Currently, young people with student loan debt are largely plagued as being further apart from their better-off counterparts than how far low-income people in previous decades were from Americans who were richer.

The forgiving of student loans – well, most of them, at least – would incentivize people purchase lots of home goods and start up new small businesses.