Welcome back to the Data for Progress newsletter, your weekly update on our research, blog posts, and memes.

Sen. Schumer and Sen. Warren for the DFP Blog: Cancel Student Debt!
It’s hard to get any legislation through Congress. But fresh off the DFP blog, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Sen. Elizabeth Warren make the case that the president has the authority to cancel student debt through executive action — and the pair of Senators say that Democrats will push for this action in 2021.

That’s right: the Senate Democratic Leader just teamed up with one of America’s most progressive legislators to advocate for a position that would’ve been called “too radical” just years ago.

And it’s no surprise — our polling shows that 59 percent of Americans support forgiving $50,000 in student debt for those making under $125,000 a year.



“In the middle of an economy that’s been badly hit by the pandemic, the student debt crisis acts like an anchor,” Schumer and Warren write. “Students with large debt burdens are often at the beginning of their careers and can be the most susceptible to layoffs or difficulty entering the workforce during a period of high unemployment.”

Canceling up to $50,000 in student loan debt would significantly reduce the economic strife faced by millions of Americans, who were struggling to pay off their loans even before the coronavirus wreaked havoc on the American economy. And since those struggling with student loan debt are disproportionately people of color, it would also build wealth in Black and Latinx communities.

Read the full piece here!


Memo: Voters See States as Essential and Want Them to Receive Aid
Unlike the federal government, states cannot run deficits — they’re required to have a balanced budget every year. This means that in the absence of additional relief from the federal government, state governments — which are facing what could be the largest budget shortfalls recorded in U.S. history — would be forced to make massive spending cuts that would harm millions of Americans and slow our economic recovery.

The good news? When asked whether states should receive additional aid from the federal government or whether they should be left on their own, 53 percent of voters agreed with the more generous option, while just 33 percent backed the conservative option. 



Interestingly, we also found that voters in both parties support creating a new entity that would allow states facing budget deficits as a result of the coronavirus to borrow money from the federal government.




Mondaire Jones for the DFP Blog: Don’t Let John Roberts Fool You
Many view Chief Justice John Roberts as a “moderating influence” — but on our blog, NY-17 Democratic nominee Mondaire Jones breaks down exactly how Roberts has engaged in “real, partisan work...to entrench Republican power.”

While Roberts has made some good high-profile moves — he’s upheld crucial provisions of the Affordable Care Act and declined to block an Obama Administration restriction on toxic emissions — he has consistently taken the conservative position on voting rights cases when it’s mattered most. Jones breaks down seven cases in which Roberts has voted in favor of reduced voting rights, from defending photo ID requirements to voting that federal courts can’t rule on partisan gerrymandering cases to undoing the one-week, health-based extension to Wisconsin’s vote-by-mail deadline this April.

“If a law suppresses the vote and advantages Republicans, it is constitutional [to Roberts]; if it protects the right to vote, especially for Black and Brown voters, it is unconstitutional,” Jones writes.


New DFP Hires!
We’re excited to announce that Evangel Penumaka has joined DFP as a polling analyst, and Jason Katz-Brown is our new CTO. Follow them at @evangelpenumaka and @jasonkatzbrown.


Data Bytes

• A Majority of Americans Are Concerned About Big Tech’s Power: Americans are waking up to the danger of Big Tech companies holding so much power. Our new polling, published by Politico, found that 65 percent of voters think the economic power held by Amazon, Google, Facebook, and other tech giants is a problem for the American economy — with Republicans showing the highest levels of concern.
  
  Voters are also on board with proposals to combat this concentration of power: Fifty-six percent support doing more to break up tech companies to promote competition.
   

• Voters — Including Republicans — Think Climate Change is Making Weather More Extreme: In the wake of Hurricane Laura, Hurricane Sally, and the wildfires out west, we decided to track whether voters think natural disasters like hurricanes and wildfires are getting more extreme because of climate change.
  
  We’ve polled this for the past three weeks, and in the most recent week, we found 70 percent Democratic agreement, 49 percent independent agreement, and 36 percent Republican agreement (up from 31 percent in week 1) that climate change is causing more extreme weather and natural disasters.
  
  
   

• Memo: The Case for a Federal Job Guarantee Program: In our latest memo with the Justice Collaborative Institute, we make the case for a federal job guarantee and show that it has a surprising level of support — 64 percent, including majorities of independents and Republicans.
  
  

From The Blog
Don’t Let John Roberts Fool You
Voters—Including Republicans—Think Climate Change is Making Weather More Extreme
The President Doesn’t Need Congress to Cancel Student Loan Debt. Democrats Will Push For Action in 2021
Exposure to Wildfires Increases Support for Climate Action
Voters Want to See More Climate Coverage in the Media


Memos
Memo: The Case for a Federal Job Guarantee Program
Memo: Voters See States as Essential and Want Them to Receive Aid
Memo: End Corporate Tax Avoidance and Tax Competition - Collect the Tax Deficit of Multinationals
Memo: Texas Voters Support Bold Climate Actions


Media Hits
We have to accelerate clean energy innovation to curb the climate crisis. Here’s how. @Vox
Poll: majority of Americans concerned about Big Tech’s economic, political power @Politico
Behind the scenes of Generation Green New Deal @GreenBiz
Episode 236: Banking for the planet and behind the scenes of Generation Green New Deal @GreenBiz
Julian Brave NoiseCat on BBC World @BBC World
Why Biden and the Democrats went big on climate change @Axios
The Progressive Activist Begging the Left to Stop Owning Itself @The Atlantic
Why Republicans Still Don’t Care About Climate Change @The Atlantic


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