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People keep calling it student loan “forgiveness.” But it’s not. It’s student loan TRANSFERS, and Joe Biden is trying to do it again – a third time – after already being slapped down last year by the U.S. Supreme Court.

You may have seen the news about this earlier in the week. The reason it’s a debt **transfer** and not forgiveness is because the student loan debts in question were funded by the federal government using taxpayer dollars, every one of which is supposed to be paid back by the person who received the loan. 

The accounting for that loan MUST come from somewhere. So when this President declares he’s going to “forgive” those loans, what’s he saying is that he’s going to relieve that person of their legal, moral, and ethical obligation to repay the loan, and instead permanently transfer that debt to you, the taxpayer.

When you understand the motives of this President (i.e. election year, trailing in most polls, desperately needing young college-aged voters to turn out for him in November, etc.) you can immediately see why Biden continues to pursue this effort despite being humiliated, over and over, at every attempt. This is unfair and irresponsible.

I’ve covered this before, but it’s worth reviewing again. EVERY reason people cite to support student loan “forgiveness” is quickly destroyed with logic:

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REASON 1: “Most colleges are too expensive.”

Agreed, but that is not a compelling reason why the federal government should take money from the majority of Americans who don’t pursue a college degree to pay for those who do!

To the extent lawmakers have a role here, it’s to address the NUMEROUS underlying issues that have caused tuition to rise faster than inflation. (Well, at least faster than inflation prior to Biden taking office.) The role of government is NOT to saddle people with someone else’s individual debts!

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REASON 2: “Public K-12 education is ‘free’, so college should be as well.”

By that logic, all post-secondary education should be publicly funded, including grad school, law school, trade school, med school, PhD programs, etc. Where do you draw the line?

K-12 provides important knowledge and fundamental skills needed to be a productive member of our society. Everyone can benefit from a K-12 education, as does our nation as a whole. (Which is why it’s compulsory and publicly funded.) The same absolutely CANNOT be said for college, especially given what we’ve seen lately.

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REASON 3: “A college education helps people get better paying jobs, so the federal government should incentivize that.”

Really?! It’s true that government incentivizes people to pursue certain career paths when it benefits our general welfare (e.g. teachers and healthcare providers in rural areas). But when did it become the federal government’s role to incentivize career choices based on someone’s projected income? That’s not a valid reason.

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REASON 4: “Canceling student loan debt will help stimulate the economy.”

Inflation is still a major problem for our country under this President, which means additional federal stimulus is a foolish idea. But setting that aside, why not use taxpayer dollars to pay off everyone’s car payment? Or mortgage? Or credit card balance? Wouldn’t that also help stimulate the economy?

Two issues here: (1) offloading student loans to the taxpayers would actually be one of the LEAST effective ways to stimulate our economy, as numerous studies have pointed out. And (2) not everyone has the same debts. So government paying off student loans would inequitably benefit people with those debts, leaving everyone else out to dry. That’s not a moral use of taxpayer dollars.

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REASON 5: “It will help lower income people.”

Okay, but remember it would help higher income people disproportionally more. The University of Chicago released an exhaustive report on this very issue, illustrating how student loan forgiveness would benefit the top 10% of income earners just as much as it would the bottom 30% COMBINED. This is highly regressive.