Skip to Content

Blog

Joe Biden Is Trying To Saddle You With Other People’s Student Debt

Yet again, Joe Biden is trying to saddle you with other people’s student debt. This latest effort, according to news reports, would “cancel” at least $10,000 in federal student debt for those earning under a certain amount.

I put “cancel” in quotes because it’s not canceled at all. Whether it’s the federal government or a private lender, you don’t just erase loans off the books. That’s not the way it works.

Finances aside, this is terrible policy from an ethics and fairness standpoint. What about those who have private student loans, instead of federal? What about those who already paid off their loans? What about the majority of Americans who never pursue a college degree? And what about the rest of Americans who will be saddled with this debt?

For federal student loans, those funds originate from one of two places – either tax revenue or money the federal government borrowed from elsewhere. So when Biden nonchalantly says he’s canceling any amount of federal student debt, he’s telling you two things:

1. Your tax dollars, which the federal government used to lend out for other people’s student loans, will not be repaid; and

2. Money the federal government borrowed to then lend out for student loans will not be repaid by the people who borrowed it. That means you, the taxpayer, will be responsible for paying back that original debt.

This is just wrong on so many levels.