According to an Associated Press story, which did not hide the political calculation, the Department of Education said it has decided to focus on other priorities in President Biden’s final weeks rather than move ahead with its plan that would affect an estimated 38 million borrowers.
By dropping his own plan to implement new debt-relief regulations, President Biden takes away an opportunity for President-elect Trump to rewrite those regulations when he takes office, the AP story explained.
Matt Lamb, associate editor of The College Fix, says calling it student loan “forgiveness” is misleading.
“It's called forgiveness but, at the end of the day, someone has to pay for it,” he tells AFN. “Whether it's the taxpayers directly or whether interest rates will eventually just go up on student loans because of the risk."
By backtracking from its own plans, Lamb adds, the Biden administration is saving American taxpayers an estimated $600 billion.
College Fix reminded readers that estimate came from the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, which cited a vague definition of “hardship” in the proposed regulation, after the Biden administration estimated the cost at $112 billion.
