Susan Collins swipes at Biden's potential plan to wipe out some student debt

• Collins criticized Biden's potential move to cancel some student loans.
• She argues it's unfair to people who repaid student loans and doesn't want higher-earners to qualify.

Sen. Susan Collins of Maine on Thursday criticized the Biden administration for considering wiping out a portion of student debt. She argued that she doesn't want relief flowing to borrowers with high-incomes.

"I have a lot of concerns that there does not seem to be any kind of income cap that he is proposing," Collins told Insider.

"I believe that we ought to increase Pell Grants which go to our neediest families and that is a far better way to target relief," she said, referring to a program that helps lower-income students pay for higher education.

NBC News reported that debt relief would likely be tied to a borrower's income, similar to the direct payments of the Biden stimulus law enacted last year.

The Maine Republican also said student debt forgiveness is "not fair" to those who repaid their debt over many years. She also argued that people with higher incomes are likelier to be able to pay it back and shouldn't qualify.

Other Democrats were quick to respond. "That's like saying if we lower the cost of prescription medicine, are we screwing the people who used to pay more?" Sen. Brian Schatz of Hawaii told Insider.

"This is a problem in our society," Schatz said. "We should fix it."

The criticism from Collins comes after President Joe Biden said on Thursday that he expected to make a decision on some student debt relief "in the next couple of weeks."

Biden has faced cascading calls to forgive some student debt, and those calls have only amplified following his most recent extension of the pause on student-loan payments through August 31. While Biden promised on the campaign trail to approve $10,000 in student-loan forgiveness, many progressives were hoping he would shoot higher.

But during Thursday remarks, he shut the door on $50,000 in relief for every federal borrower.

"I am considering dealing with some debt reduction, I am not considering $50,000 debt reduction but I'm in the process of taking a hard look at whether there will be additional debt forgiveness," he said, adding a decision will be made "in the next couple of weeks."

While Republicans remain adamant that student-loan relief should not be implemented, partly due to fiscal costs, Democrats are hopeful relief will be delivered, and that it will stimulate the economy.