Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez explained her support for Sen. Bernie Sanders' legislation that would cancel all student loan debt. Ocasio-Cortez said at a news conference Monday outside of Capitol Hill that her support for the legislation is in part related to her experience with the issue.


The 29-year-old congresswoman made history in the 2018 midterms, becoming the youngest woman ever elected to Congress, a feat she said was easier than paying off her student loan debt.

"I have student loans, too," Ocasio-Cortez told reporters. "I think it's so funny, a year ago, I was waiting tables in a restaurant, and it was literally easier for me to become the youngest woman in American history elected to Congress than it is to pay off my student loan debt."

According to a 2018 financial disclosure for Ocasio-Cortez, she is paying off between $15,000 and $50,000 in student loan debt, a range that, according to Forbes, is about average for what Americans in the class of 2017 owed.

"What we tell 17-year-olds all the time is that you are not old enough or responsible enough to drink, you are not old enough or responsible enough to vote, you are not old enough or responsible enough to serve in our military, but you are old enough and responsible enough to take on a quarter million dollars worth of debt," Ocasio-Cortez said.

The New York congresswoman is not the only prominent name in politics who shared stories of struggling with paying off the debt. Former President Barack Obama told a crowd in 2013 that both he and his wife Michelle Obama worked with handling their debts into their 40s.

"We each graduated from college and law school with a mountain of debt. And even though we got good jobs, we barely finished paying it off just before I was elected to the U.S. Senate," Obama told a 2013 audience in Buffalo, New York. "I mean, I was in my 40s when we finished paying off our debt. And we should have been saving for Malia and Sasha by that time."

Sponsored by Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal and Senator Bernie Sanders, the College for All Act aims to eliminate all $1.6 trillion of student loan debt.

Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-CortezStudent-Debt-Crisis