He s still backing out of the white house correspondent dinner. what exactly does a transitional phase of the pandemic mean? i m charles grow, in front mehdi hasan, there s a ticking time bomb on the economy. nearly two trillion dollars of student loans owned by 50 million borrowers. americans now all more in student loans than car loans and credit card loans. it is significantly on the poor and non-white. this is not just a problem for non - young americans. older americans have the fastest student loan debt of any age group. when the pandemic started, the education department put federal student loan payments on hold. joe biden extended that twice. but the grace period is less