August 26, 2022

Student Debt Executive Action

Friend, 

President Biden announced on Wednesday the federal government will provide $10,000 in student loan relief for individuals making up to $125,000 and married couples making up to $250,000. 

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This part of President Biden's action alone will cost roughly $300 billion dollars. This will shift the debt to all taxpayers. 

The President also extended the pause on payments that began at the start of the pandemic in March 2020, which will cost an additional $20 billion on top of the roughly $115 billion it has already cost taxpayers. The continued forbearance comes as unemployment among college graduates is down to about 2%, showing college graduates are maintaining employment. 

The cost of this plan will inevitably increase inflation and sets the wrong precedent.

Taxpayers who never took out student loans, those who have already paid off their debt, and those who didn't attend a four-year college or graduate school in the first place are now on the hook for student loan repayment. This is a massive redistribution of wealth. More than half of the debt held is by Americans with graduate degrees, meaning they attended six years or more. Many of these individuals with graduate degrees are in ultra-high paying professions like medicine and law.  

As a former regent of the University of Wisconsin system, I was directly responsible for controlling the costs of higher education. On the Board, we never once raised undergraduate in-state tuition. We worked hard to keep college affordable. Our efforts had an impact. The cost of in state tuition in Wisconsin is roughly $11,000 a year, whereas Harvard is $54,000 a year. All universities should be working to lower costs. We need to hold colleges accountable for their tuition, rather than force every American to pay for it. Forgiving student debt doesn’t fix the problem of rising college tuition costs. Instead, it will lead to higher tuition and more debt, clobbering taxpayers.    

We need to address the cost of higher education. Simply paying off debt will make the problem worse. This is the wrong approach. 

If you would like to share an opinion with me on the President's student debt proposal, please contact me. 

On Wisconsin,

Bryan Steil
Member of Congress

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