[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 143 (Wednesday, September 7, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4454-S4455]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                     Student Loan Debt Relief Plan

  Mr. President, 8 days--8 days--that is how long it took President 
Biden to completely erase any of the supposed deficit reduction 
included in the Democrats' so-called Inflation Reduction Act.
  On August 24, 8 days after signing the Inflation Reduction Act into 
law, President Biden announced that, with the stroke of his pen, he 
would be forgiving $10,000 in student loan debt, $20,000 for Pell grant 
recipients, and taking other costly measures on student loans.
  The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, which, incidentally, 
is where Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen served prior to joining the 
Biden administration, estimates that, all together, the President's 
student loan changes will cost anywhere from $440 billion to $600 
billion over the next decade. The Penn Wharton Budget Model suggests it 
could be even worse than that, with the total cost over 10 years 
exceeding $1 trillion.
  Now, even using the most optimistic assumptions, the Inflation 
Reduction Act would have only reduced the deficit by about $300 
billion. President Biden's student loan plan will wipe out every single 
dime of that reduction and then add hundreds of billions of dollars to 
the debt on top of it--so much for the Democrats' commitment to 
reducing the deficit, which, I think, was a hoax in the first place.
  There wasn't any serious commitment to it, but it only took them 8 
days--8 days--to wipe it out after they crowed about it and talked 
about how they got Joe Manchin on board because he made a commitment 
to deficit reduction, which was something he supposedly insisted on in 
these discussions. And yet here we are. Eight days--in 8 days it is 
gone.

  Now, I have already noted that the Committee for a Responsible 
Federal Budget estimates that the President's student loan measures 
will cost a staggering half a trillion dollars over the next decade. 
Here is what else the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget had to 
say:

       The student debt cancellation and relief measures announced 
     . . . by the Biden administration . . . would meaningfully 
     boost inflation.

  ``Would meaningfully boost inflation''--that is right. Americans have 
spent the majority of the Biden administration struggling with huge 
increases in the price of everything from gas to groceries, and the 
President just imposed by fiat a new policy that is likely to 
``meaningfully boost inflation.''
  I guess it isn't surprising. After all, it is thanks in large part to 
the Democrats and the President that we ended up with this inflation 
crisis in the first place.
  As I mentioned earlier, their reckless American Rescue Plan spending 
spree flooded the country with unnecessary money and the economy 
overheated as a result. But the President's latest reckless action 
underscores just how committed Democrats are to big-spending and big-
government agenda.
  Now, Democrats tried to suggest that they had gotten serious about 
the economy with their so-called Inflation Reduction Act, even though 
the bill was only serious about spending taxpayer dollars on ill-
considered priorities like their Green New Deal agenda. But the fact--
the fact--that it took the President exactly 8 days to wipe out any 
deficit reduction from the Democrats' bill tells you all you need to 
know about exactly how serious Democrats are about handling taxpayer 
dollars responsibly.
  Now, I have talked for a while about why the President's student loan 
plans are such bad economic policy, but you don't have to take my word 
for it. Here is what former Obama economic adviser Jason Furman had to 
say about President Biden's student loan plans:

       Pouring roughly half [a] trillion dollars of gasoline on 
     the inflationary fire that already is burning is reckless. 
     Doing it while going well beyond one campaign promise, [which 
     is $10,000] of student loan relief, and breaking another, 
     [which is that] all proposals [have to be] paid for, is even 
     worse.

  That is from Obama economic adviser Jason Furman.
  Another former Obama economic adviser noted:

       Student loan debt relief is spending that raises demand and 
     increases inflation. . . . It will also tend to be 
     inflationary by raising tuitions.

  Well, there are even some current Democrat Members of Congress that 
have expressed their concerns about the President's reckless student 
loan decision. And the president of the Committee for a Responsible 
Federal Budget, which, I mentioned, is where President Biden's very own 
Treasury Secretary once served on the board, issued a scathing 
statement in which she said:

       This announcement is gallingly reckless--with the national 
     debt approaching record levels and inflation surging, it will 
     make both worse. . . . It would do nothing to actually make 
     education more affordable, and if anything, this policy will 
     drive up tuition costs while raising prices on a variety of 
     other goods and services for ordinary Americans.

  This is from the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, which is 
where the President's own Treasury Secretary used to serve.
  Let me repeat that: ``while raising prices on a variety of other 
goods and services for ordinary Americans.''
  Well, as the Washington Post editorial board noted, American 
taxpayers will be footing the bill for the President's student loan 
decision. Ordinary Americans will pay in the form of higher prices. 
They will pay in the form of higher rates on loans and mortgages, and 
they will pay in the form of higher tuition costs.
  The majority of Americans do not have student loan debt, either 
because they paid off their loans, never went to college, got a 
scholarship, or worked their way through college or were able to go 
thanks to their or their parents' savings. Now these Americans are 
going to be footing the bill for the 13 percent of Americans who do 
have student loan debt. Everyone is going to have to suffer 
economically to provide loan forgiveness for the few.
  This is deeply, deeply unfair. It is unfair to expect Americans who 
either never went to college, paid off their loans, or paid their way 
through to shoulder the cost of other Americans' loans.
  The President's decision is unfair to parents who scrimped and saved 
to send their children to college, representing a lot of American 
families; to the students who chose a lower cost college or worked to 
put themselves through; to the men and women in uniform in the military 
who fought for this country to earn money for their college education; 
and to the families struggling with high grocery bills and high energy 
bills and high rent prices who are likely to end up facing even more 
price increases, thanks to the President's student loan decisions.

[[Page S4455]]

  And let's remember that taxpayers are going to be facing economic 
hardship to pay off student loans for Americans who, if they graduated 
from college, enjoy greater long-term earning potential than many of 
the Americans who will be helping to shoulder the burden for their 
debts.
  The President's plan isn't even targeted to the most needy, with 
families making $250,000 a year--nearly 10 times the poverty line for a 
family of 4--now eligible to have their loans forgiven.
  There is no doubt that the cost of a college education has risen 
outrageously and that, in some cases, students have been encouraged to 
take on unrealistic levels of debt to pay for it, but the President's 
student loan plan does absolutely nothing to fix these problems.
  The President's plan will not only do nothing to control the cost of 
a college education, it will almost undoubtedly make our current 
situation worse. What college is going to spend time worrying about 
lowering tuition fees if it can expect the Federal Government to pick 
up part of the bill for its students' educations?
  The President's plan will also do nothing to discourage students from 
taking on unrealistic levels of debt. In fact, it is likely to 
encourage students to incur even more debt since the President has now 
set up an expectation that the government will step in to help pay down 
students' loan burdens.
  Given the fact that student loan debt is expected to be back to its 
current level in 6 years, I imagine we will be hearing more Democratic 
calls for student loan forgiveness in the very near future. In fact, 
some Members of the Democratic Party already think the President didn't 
go far enough. More than one Democrat wanted the President to forgive 
$50,000 in debt. Now, apparently, these Democrats won't be satisfied 
until our economy drowns entirely under the weight of reckless 
government spending.
  The defining achievement of the Biden administration so far has been 
an economy that has left millions of Americans struggling to make ends 
meet. Apparently, the President wants that to be his legacy because, 
for the sake of a few possible votes in November, he has decided to 
pursue yet another economic policy that will almost undoubtedly result 
in further economic pain for the American people.
  Now he will just have to hope that his strategy doesn't backfire 
because, while his reckless student loan plan may buy him a vote or 
two, a lot of other Americans may decide that they have had their fill 
of inflationary spending and far-left appeasement.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.