A version of this article was originally published in The Daily Brief, our Maine politics newsletter. Sign up here for daily news and insight from politics editor Michael Shepherd.
President Joe Biden’s student debt plan finally landed on Wednesday, featuring up to $20,000 in debt forgiveness for millions of Americans as well as lowering the monthly amounts that most borrowers have to pay.
But what was striking in Maine was the cool reaction from the congressional delegation. Rep. Jared Golden, a Democrat running a key election in the swing 2nd District, blasted the plan as ” out of touch.” His Republican opponent, former Rep. Bruce Poliquin, hammered it as well. Poliquin also said the move was legally dubious, a view shared by some lawyers, so stay tuned to the coming arguments on that front.
Golden’s arguments were similar to those from Republicans: the plan would drive inflation and is not in step with the values of working-class Americans. Sen. Susan Collins, the Maine delegation’s only Republican, said the plan was unfair to those who paid their loans or never took them out in the first place.
Even Sen. Angus King, an independent who caucuses with Democrats and generally aligns with Biden on domestic policy, said through a spokesperson that high costs should be addressed “more directly and sustainably.” Rep. Chellie Pingree, a Democrat from the liberal 1st District, applauded the plan.
Maine and the entire Northeast have historically had relatively high levels of student debt. This has led to aggressive and bipartisan attention to the issue. Fellow Republicans killed a 2017 plan from former Gov. Paul LePage to borrow money for debt relief, although Democratic Gov. Janet Mills worked with Assistant Senate Minority Leader Matt Pouliot, R-Augusta, on a major simplification and expansion of a tax credit on the issue earlier this year.
Biden’s plan landed differently, although the liberal Maine Center for Economic Policy, which supported the action, estimated it would help 177,000 borrowers here while erasing the debt of 30,000 older Mainers. James Myall, an analyst for the group, said 86,000 people in the 2nd District could benefit.
But college completion levels vary widely across Maine. In the 1st District, more than two-thirds of people have completed some college compared with 56 percent in the 2nd District. This varies across counties even wider, from about 50 percent in heavily rural Piscataquis County to 74 percent in Cumberland County, Maine’s most populous and affluent one.
We have often observed examples of the “two Maines” phenomenon in state politics, which is often an oversimplification of the major differences between regions. But these widely varying demographics do help explain the spectrum of reactions to Biden’s plan.