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Is student-loan forgiveness unforgivable in Congress?
国会是否同意减免学生贷款？
Even before taking office, president-elect Joe Biden is already facing a political storm among his ideologically diverse base of supporters over the volatile issue of student-debt forgiveness.
学生贷款减免问题备具争议，当选总统拜登就职之前就已在其形态各异的支持者中挑起一场政治风暴。
Roughly 45 million Americans currently hold $1.6 trillion in student debt, with the average student-loan recipient owing between $20,000 and $25,000, according to the Federal Reserve. Among those actively making payments on their debt, the average monthly installment is between $200 and $300. And with 5.3 million more people unemployed than in February, right before the U.S. fell into a pandemic-induced recession, progressives say that student-debt forgiveness could be a boon for the economy.
美国联邦储备委员会的数据显示，目前约有4,500万美国人持有1.6万亿美元的学生债务，学生贷款接受者的平均债务在2万美元至2.5万美元之间。那些积极还债的人平均每月的分期付款金额在200美元至300美元之间。美国失业人数与2月份相比增加了530万人，而2月份正好在美国陷入因新冠导致的衰退之前。进步人士表示，对经济来说，减免学生债务或许是件好事。
"Student-debt cancellation feels like one of the most accessible Executive actions to stimulate the economy at the moment," says Suzanne Kahn, director of the Education, Jobs and Worker Power program and the Great Democracy Initiative at the liberal Roosevelt Institute.
苏珊娜·卡恩是自由主义罗斯福协会教育、就业和工人动力项目和大民主倡议项目的主任，她说：“感觉取消学生债务是目前刺激经济最可行的行政措施之一。”
Kahn and others say the move would also help close the wealth gap between white Americans and people of color. Some 90% of Black students and 72% of Latino students take out loans for college vs. just 66% of white students, according to a 2016 analysis from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
卡恩等人说，这一举措还将有助于缩小美国白人和有色人种之间的财富差距。美国消费者金融保护局2016年的一项分析显示：约有90%的黑人学生和72%的拉丁裔学生申请了大学贷款，而申请大学贷款的白人学生只有66%。
But the more moderate faction of Biden's base argues that sweeping student-loan forgiveness doesn't help the people who need aid most. Americans with college degrees, as a whole, have been less devastated by the economic effects of COVID-19 than their noncollege-educated counterparts. A September report from Pew Research Center found that only 12% of people with college degrees were having trouble paying bills as a result of the pandemic, compared with 34% of Americans with a high school diploma or less.
但拜登阵营里较为温和的一派认为，全面减免学生贷款并不能帮到最需要帮助的人。总体上来说，拥有大学学位的美国人受到新冠带来的经济影响的冲击要小于未受过大学教育的美国人。皮尤研究中心9月份的一份报告发现，在新冠的影响下，只有12%的拥有大学学位的人难以支付账单，而这一比例在拥有高中或更低学历的美国人之间为34%。
Others raise concerns about precedent: if the government wipes out current student loans, future college students may have an incentive to take on debts, they argue, hoping they will also be forgiven. Colleges may in turn be inclined to raise their prices further.
其他人则担忧先例被开创的问题：他们认为，如果政府减免了当前学生的贷款，那么之后的大学生有可能会去特意贷款，然后也希望自己的债务能够被免除。反过来，大学可能会倾向于进一步提高学费。
In recent weeks, Biden has walked a fine line on the issue, offering support for a bill from House Democrats calling for $10,000 worth of student-loan forgiveness but stopping short of endorsing anything close to a plan championed by Senators Elizabeth Warren and Chuck Schumer to issue $50,000 per borrower through Executive action.
最近几周，拜登在这个问题上走了一条很好的路线，他支持众议院民主党议员提出的减免1万美元学生贷款的议案，但并未支持参议员伊丽莎白·沃伦和查克·舒默倡导的通过行政行为为每个借款人发放5万美元贷款等类似计划。
What's clear, according to experts on both sides of the aisle, is that economic crises exacerbate the problem of student debt. The last time the U.S. dipped into a recession, state governments cut their investments in colleges and universities—which, in turn, raised their tuition prices and forced students to take on ever larger loans.
在两党专家看来有一点是明确的：经济危机使得学生债务问题更加严峻。上一次美国陷入经济衰退时，州政府削减了对高校的投资，这反过来提高了高校的学费，迫使学生们背负了越来越多的贷款。
That's not sustainable in the long run. It remains to be seen if Biden can arrive at a political solution that is.
这不是长久之计，拜登能否给出一条政治解决方案还有待观察。
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