Yahoo Finance's Jessica Smith joined Yahoo Finance Live to break down a Harris Poll that shows how people really feel on student loan foregiveness.

Video Transcript

SEANA SMITH: Let's turn to a new survey out from Yahoo Finance in the Harris Poll on student loan forgiveness. Now, we've talked about that this is an issue some Democratic lawmakers are calling on President Biden to address. I want to get to Jessica Smith on the latest on this. And Jess, what did the survey find?

JESSICA SMITH: You know Seana, the survey found that less than half of Americans support any level of student loan forgiveness. This was a yes or no question on this poll. And 46% said they supported some level of student debt forgiveness. While 54% opposed it. College grads in households making more than $100,000 are more likely than lower income households to support forgiveness. The higher income households are more likely to have higher student debt. Black and Hispanic Americans were more likely to support forgiveness than white Americans. Advocates say student loan debt disproportionately impacts minority borrowers.

And even though the majority of people opposed student debt forgiveness, 55% said that they think it will actually help the economy. And why all of this is front and center here in Washington is because progressives in Congress are pushing President Biden to use executive authority to cancel up to $50,000 in debt per person. Biden has made it clear he won't do that, but he would sign legislation that forgives up to $10,000 per borrower. The poll found that most people, 59% think if there is going to be forgiveness, Congress should do it, not the president.

This issue could also sway how people vote in future elections. 2/3 of the respondents said a politician's stance on the issue is at least somewhat important to them as they decide who they're going to vote for. Advocates say that doing this, that forgiving student debt, would not only help individuals, but it would help the economy as a whole. It would speed up the economic recovery, because people might start buying houses, spending money elsewhere, making big investments.

And our survey did find that 30% of people with student debt have delayed buying a home, more than a quarter have delayed health care, and 22% have delayed starting a business. So we found some other really interesting things in this survey. We have a couple of stories on yahoofinance.com if you want to read more. Seana and Adam?