APR 27, 2022
According to press reports, President Biden is seriously considering cancelling a large swath of student debt – perhaps more than the $10,000 per borrower he originally proposed during the campaign. We previously estimated that cancellation of $10,000 per borrower would cost roughly $250 billion, cancellation of $50,000 per borrower of debt would cost about $950 billion, and full cancellation would cost roughly $1.6 trillion. This cancellation would be on top of the current repayment pause and other targeted cancellation policies, which will have already cost the federal government at least $150 billion.
The following is a statement from Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget:
Student debt cancellation may be an extremely appealing political talking point, but it is not good policy. It is costly, inflationary, poorly targeted, and fails to address the root problems in our higher education financing system.
Full debt cancellation would be a massive hand-out to rich doctors and lawyers, would worsen our inflation crisis, and would cost almost as much as the entire 2017 tax cuts. Even partial debt cancellation would be costly, regressive, and inflationary. Forgiving $10,000 per person of debt would cost as much as universal pre-K or a full extension of the expanded ACA subsidies.
Either the President is serious about reducing deficits and getting inflation under control, or he is not. The White House can’t have it both ways. We need to be focusing on a serious and effective agenda that prioritizes sound policies, not poorly targeted political giveaways.
###
For more information, please contact Kim McIntyre, Director of Media Relations, at mcintyre@crfb.org
QUINNSCOMMENTARY 
The propensity of our elected officials to punt serious problems to the future is staggeringly obscene. It is like they believe there is a future pot of untapped gold that will solve all financial obilgations. The known problems are overwhelming now, not to mention the unknown future calamities. In the past, responsible citizens would have been horrified there were government officials in power that refused tough choices. Our collective future is quite ominous as long as wisdom is lacking.
LikeLike
If student loan debt is holding back millennials, then why not mortgage debt cancellation because that too is holding back everybody else who sign loan contracts to buy homes. Maybe car loans too?
Pay your debts. I did.
LikeLike
And what about the thousands of people that paid off their student loans? Should they get a rebate??
LikeLike
Not to mention those of us who remortgaged their homes and worked two jobs to pay our children’s collage costs.
LikeLike