Proponents of broad student-loan debt cancellation and those pushing to extend the payment moratorium should know better. Many of the individuals and organizations pushing for total debt cancellation have long and distinguished records of fighting for social justice. They just got this one wrong — offering 100% debt reprieves for very high-income workers with advanced degrees isn’t just fundamentally a terrible idea, it’s also just plain unfair.

Why should we, as taxpayers, foot the bill for people who borrowed money knowing full well that they would have to pay it back? The moratorium on loan payments, which has already stretched more than two years, was a temporary necessity at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. But we’re not in March 2020 anymore. The relief policies of two years ago are no longer necessary — we need forward-thinking solutions that will continue to create jobs and curtail inflation. Extending the payment pause for high-six-figure salary earners does neither of these.

Just as I am repaying my college loans — as did millions of others through recessions, the trauma of September 11th, and other cataclysmic events — so, too, should this generation that now feels that they are somehow entitled to relief as a matter of right, regardless of their income and whether or not they are giving back to their community.

The student-loan moratorium should end as scheduled on August 31. If a borrower is a teacher, lawyer, or doctor making economic sacrifices to serve low-income communities then they should have the benefit of relief through the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, which more people need to know about. But, if a young person borrowed money and is making hundreds of thousands of dollars in the private sector, then that person should work in good faith and repay their loans.

To his credit President Joe Biden — with the help and support of Sens. John Hickenlooper and Michael Bennet, and U.S. Reps. Joe Neguse, Ed Perlmutter, Diana DeGette and Jason Crow — has taken strong and aggressive steps to protect and provide relief to student-loan borrowers in need in a tailored manner. The president should double down on targeted relief and dismiss broad reprieve — it’s time to restart the program. If he wants to get at the root of the issues plaguing student-loan borrowers, then he should direct his attention to lowering the cost of tuition or expanding Pell grants so more can afford college.

The loan moratorium, which has been in place since March 2020 is contributing to inflation and unnecessarily costing taxpayers, including Coloradans, $15 billion a quarter. This blanket repayment pause is inequitable. It is unfair to people who skipped college to enter the workforce early who are now funding the liabilities of the affluent. Our friends in organized labor who worked full time while learning to become pipefitters, plumbers, electricians or heavy-machine operators in apprenticeship programs are being asked to pay for the liabilities of those who chose to borrow funds for college.

Our federal lawmakers in Washington, D.C., particularly our great Sens. Hickenlooper and Bennet, should push the administration to resume loan payments with fair exceptions for those who are truly giving back to our country and their community. They should recognize that the public sees through the elites who are pushing this moratorium and how fundamentally unfair it is. Any elected official who puts the interests of high-income borrowers over working families definitely runs the risk of incurring the wrath of the voters across the spectrum in November — something I do not want to see.

A clear and final date to resume repayment will have the added benefit of encouraging borrowers to explore all available options and refinance their debt now at lower rates before the Federal Reserve decides to raise them again.

It is time to end the student-loan moratorium for all the reasons listed and then some. But, most of all it must end because it is unfair. Of all the values the Democratic Party must stand for fairness must always be at the forefront.

Maya Wheeler currently serves as the executive director of the African Chamber of Commerce in Colorado. The African Chamber of Commerce is the premier platform and trusted voice connecting the greater Colorado region with the African continent for business development aimed to create growth and investment by empowering the African business community of Colorado. The views expressed are her own and not those of the African Chamber of Commerce Colorado, USA.