This is the original news story underlying the OP link.
1. AOC borrowed the money and spent it.
2. AOC chose a major with no career path more remunerative than bartending.
Paying off her loan is her obligation, not mine. I paid off my student loan over 40 years ago. And didn't whine about it when I did.
In her...
blech, I can't believe I'm doing this, but... in her defense:
AOC was born in 1989, meaning she graduated high school and started college (and likely had already settled on her major) in 2007, when the economy was still relatively good. The job market collapsed in 2008.
I speak from experience here when I say that you can't always see what the job market is going to be like for your chosen career path four or five years after you decide to pursue it. I went to school for meteorology, something I had wanted to do since I was a young child, and when I started it was looking fairly stable—it might be a challenge to get in but it would be doable. Then the entry-level job market collapsed out from underneath me just before I graduated. The seemingly stable job opportunities in smaller areas disappeared. Is that my fault, a mistake on my part? In hindsight, perhaps, but how would I have known? There are countless others from that time span who found themselves in similar conundra(?). Especially the ones that were caught in the middle of their education when it seemed like literally every job field except health care was contracting.
(OK. There. That wasn't so hard.)
Now that I've got that out of the way... if there's any other entity that's going to help these people dig out of the $1.5 trillion hole that's been created because of this, it ought to be the universities and colleges that keep escalating their prices well above the rate of inflation each year. College education has transformed from a way to learn the skills and knowledge to pursue new careers to a risky gamble that MIGHT get you a better life IF you're well-connected enough to land an entry-level job. That onus is on the colleges and universities.
AOC is basically asking for a bailout, a reward, for the colleges and universities that have run amok. Heck no. They ripped us off. But hey, she landed on her feet in Congress, unlike SOME of us. (For the record, I did pay off my loans on a cashier's salary.)