CBO estimate puts figure at $400 billion

Bob Unruh
WND News Center

Joe Biden’s plan to have taxpayers pay for the first $10,000 of most college students’ loans will cost them some $400 billion, according to a new estimate.

The Washington Examiner said that estimate comes from the Congressional Budget Office.

It is in a letter to Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., and Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., the senior Republicans on the Senate and House education committees, that the estimate was delivered.

According to Phillip Swagel, the CBO chief, the $400 billion is an estimate, although it remains “highly uncertain.”

Biden announced several weeks ago plans to forgive debts for students of up to $10,000 for those making less than $125,000 a year, up to $20,000 in some cases.

However, those loans are not forgiven, they simply would be transferred from the students who took the loans and spent the money to taxpayers, meaning truck drivers, school teachers, business owners and housewives.

Biden’s decision to pause loan repayments through the end of the year already is costing $20 billion.

The Examiner noted, “For its estimate, the CBO approximated that 95% of student loan borrowers were eligible for some forgiveness, and 65% were eligible for the full $20,000 cancellation. Of those eligible, the CBO estimated that 90% would apply for loan forgiveness, and 45% of borrowers would have their entire outstanding balance eliminated.”

The Biden administration even has advised that students who paid off their loans during COVID-19, or paid them down, ask for those repayments to be returned so that amount also could be added to the tab taxpayers will have to fund.

The program’s legality remains to be resolved, as the law Biden has used to claim the authority to transfer debt from students to taxpayers applies in emergency situations only. He himself has declared that the COVID-19 pandemic emergency is over.