Tracker reveals Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan will cost taxpayers $316 BILLION

President Joe Biden’s plan to cancel student loans and lower monthly costs for Americans only adds to the cost burden on taxpayers, which stands at nearly $317 billion.

On Wednesday, Biden touted another new student loan forgiveness plan as his administration touted having forgiven $127 billion in federal student debt for 3.6 million borrowers.

Conservatives lament that the price tag is much higher – and that taxpayers will ultimately have to bear the economic consequences and bear the heaviest burden of these debts. And Republican lawmakers are still questioning whether Biden has the authority to forgive loans without congressional approval.

This is what the conservative think tank American Enterprise Institute says the cumulative lost student loan income is approximately $316,869,400,000.

The “lost revenue” resulting from the administration’s policies is defined by the institute as all the money that student loan forgiveness has cost the federal government, a burden that ultimately falls on American taxpayers.

Representative Virginia Foxx, chair of the House Education and Workforce Committee, has labeled Biden’s latest student loan forgiveness scheme an “illegal charade.”

According to the tracker, the vast majority of student loans still owed to the government are due to the interest rate pause during the three and a half years following the outbreak of the global COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020.

But the tracker also includes other efforts to forgive or reduce student loan debt through income-driven repayment plans – or IDRs – and the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Scheme – or PSLF.

The repeated rounds of forgiveness come after the Supreme Court rejected Biden’s plan to forgive more than $400 billion in student loans for most borrowers with outstanding debt.

If successful, the plan would have eliminated up to $10,000 for Americans making less than $125,000, or $250,000 for those filing jointly. Additionally, under the now dead plan, Pell Grant recipients would be eligible for up to $20,000 in student loan forgiveness.

The plan was quickly challenged by Republicans, who said it would leave those who didn’t go to college or who have already paid off all their debts with the short end of the stick and ultimately help pay back those debts in the form of higher tax burdens .

The Supreme Court has quashed Biden’s plans.

Biden announced Wednesday that the latest student loan forgiveness would focus on the new IDR SAVE program, and also ensure PSLF recipients receive their relief.

Several waves of forgiveness initiated by the Biden administration have resulted in billions in aid, including a wide range of loans that have been completely wiped out by a lawsuit against for-profit colleges.

The Department of Education on Wednesday announced the latest plan to forgive $9 billion to 125,000 borrowers through the PSLF and IDR.

More than $5 billion of the total will go toward wiping out the debts of the 53,000 borrowers who have worked in the public sector for more than a decade. And $2.8 billion will provide relief to 51,000 different borrowers in IDR plans.

In addition, $1.2 billion will go to 22,000 borrowers with disabilities.

Analysts estimate that Biden’s latest plans could slow economic growth in the final quarter of this fiscal year – as inflation is already at record highs and there is an ongoing recession.

Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee Chairman Bill Cassidy said in a statement that the Biden administration’s student loan forgiveness is “costing the American people hundreds of billions of dollars.”

“The Department continues to refuse to share with Congress what legal authority they claim to justify this expenditure of taxpayer dollars,” Senator Cassidy (R-LA) added.