Peach Tree Times

House Budget Committee Republican Leader Jason Smith criticized the Biden administration's course of action on student loan forgiveness as flawed, claiming that the tax burden will now fall on American taxpayers.

At a national level, federal student loan debt right now sits at $1.7 trillion drawn from 45 million borrowers. In Georgia, 15.4% of state residents have student loan debt. 

“President Biden continues to pursue a permanent pandemic narrative at a tremendous cost to American taxpayers," Smith said on April 21. "Today, President Biden added billions more to the taxpayer’s tab by cancelling the student loan debts of thousands of borrowers and rewriting repayment contracts for millions more with the swipe of a pen. This comes soon after the president extended a blanket student loan payment moratorium that is costing taxpayers $4.3 billion every month, and further fueling the inflation fire raging across our country. Democrats have made it clear that their goal is total forgiveness of all federal student loans – a gross attack on hardworking Americans who would have to foot the bill for a $1.6 trillion bailout to the wealthiest 20% of American households – those with graduate degrees, six-figure incomes and high lifetime earnings.”

Under the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) Program, student loan borrowers will get immediate debt cancellation, Reuters reported. Several thousand borrowers with older loans will also receive forgiveness as a result of income-driven repayment (IDR) forgiveness. In addition to that, a further 3.6 million borrowers will get a minimum of three years of additional credit toward IDR forgiveness. The plan was confirmed on April 19 and is intended to help low-income borrowers and public servants, Reuters reported.

According to Fortune.com, Biden has canceled more student loan debt than any other president, having deployed nearly $20 billion in forgiveness after taking office in January 2021. That is slightly more than 1% of all federal student loan debt. Since the beginning of his presidency, Biden has been pressured by congressional Democrats to forgive roughly $50,000 of student debt per borrower but he has been hesitant to take that action. During his campaign, Biden proposed forgiving $10,000 per federal borrower, according to News Nation.

On April 6, the Biden administration confirmed the extension of the student loan repayment pause through the end of August of 2022. The pause on loan payments was first issued in January 2021 in an attempt to give Americans a chance to financially recover from affects of the coronavirus pandemic, according to a White House press release. The Biden administration has already canceled greater than $100 billion in student debt by subtle regulatory decisions and pushing the pandemic pause through August. These decisions have not been authorized by Congress. 

The WSJ Editorial Board states that progressives want President Biden to forgive the entire $1.6 trillion in federal student debt. According to estimates from educationdata.org, $68.6 billion in student loan debt belongs to Georgia residents. The 1,647,500 student borrowers that live in Georgia adds up to nearly 15.4% of the state's total residents.