Grand Canyon Times

A U.S. representative from Missouri is blaming President Joe Biden for adding to American taxpayers’ costs by recently canceling the student loan debts of 40,000 borrowers.

Rep. Jason Smith (R-Missouri), who is House Budget Committee Republican Leader, expressed his displeasure in an April 20 statement after the U.S. Department of Education on April 19 announced in a press release more steps toward debt forgiveness for at least 3.6 million borrowers, with 40,000 borrowers receiving immediate forgiveness at an estimated cost to taxpayers of $3 billion.

Nationally, federal student loan debt is over $1.7 trillion among 43.4 million borrowers, Education Data Initiative said.

Arizona residents have $31.4 billion in student loan debt, Education Data Initiative said. The 887,100 student borrowers in Arizona equate to 12.4% of the state's residents. The average student loan debt for an Arizona resident is $35,396.

“President Biden continues to pursue a permanent pandemic narrative at a tremendous cost to American taxpayers,” Smith said in the statement. “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 twenty percent of American households – those with graduate degrees, six-figure incomes, and high lifetime earnings.”

The latest action toward debt forgiveness for student loans seeks to “fix longstanding failures in the student loan programs,” the U.S. Department of Education’s press release said. The steps towards public service loan and income-driven repayment forgiveness would result “in immediate debt cancellation for at least 40,000 borrowers under the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) Program.” The PSLF Program forgives borrowers of their remaining balance on Direct Loans after 120 qualifying monthly payments have been made, Federal Student Aid said.

“Several thousand borrowers with older loans will also receive forgiveness through IDR (income-driven repayment). More than 3.6 million borrowers will also receive at least three years of additional credit toward IDR forgiveness,” the U.S. Department of Education’s press release said.

In Biden’s April 6 statement on “Extending the Pause on Student Loan Repayment Through August 31st, 2022,” he said that on his first day in office in January 2021 he directed the pause of federal student loan repayments through September 2021.

“Because of that pause in repayments, 41 million Americans were able to breathe a little easier during some of the toughest days of the COVID-19 pandemic,” Biden said. “If loan payments were to resume on schedule in May, analysis of recent data from the Federal Reserve suggests that millions of student loan borrowers would face significant economic hardship, and delinquencies and defaults could threaten Americans’ financial stability.”

Biden’s administration has canceled over “$17 in billion in debt for 725,000 borrowers,” the U.S. Department of Education press release said.