The Biden administration announced Monday that it would introduce a new wave of student loan cancellation through the SAVE program covering a wide range of debtors. To date, the administration’s debt forgiveness has risen to a staggering total of $146 billion. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the Biden administration has accelerated their loan-canceling agenda to boost its dwindling support amongst a key voting demographic ahead of this year’s election. While it is known that student loan cancellation is bad economic policy, the SAVE program is a particularly aggravating one, as it may cost more than expected, be less targeted and will incentive students to take more debt.
The new forgiveness package would automatically forgive debt for those eligible under SAVE, an income-driven repayment plan, even when not actively enrolled in the program — under SAVE criteria, those who borrowed less than $12,000 and have been paying their loans for at least ten years. Debtors who borrowed more than $12,000 become eligible for this benefit after every additional year of payments for each extra $1,000 borrowed. For example, those who borrowed $14,000 would be required to have paid for two extra years, for a total of 12 years. After 25 years of payments have passed, all........