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‘We’re going to see’: White House admits it has no idea how much student debt will cost taxpayers

August 26, 2022 | | Print Article

It’s a wonderful thing understanding that there’s little accountability coming from the corporate media, as seen when President Biden announced the vote-procuring plan to forgive student loan debts for millions of Americans without bothering to get caught up in the actual price tag for such a giveaway — the White House did not release a cost estimate for the plan.

Even CNN appeared to be skeptical of making the announcement without offering actual details on how it is going to be paid for.

“The White House had struggled for a second straight day to answer questions about Biden’s plan, simultaneously claiming that the President waited for the plan to be ‘fiscally balanced’ before unveiling it and that there was no way to know how much the plan would cost,” the network reported Thursday.

After skirting the issue earlier in the day, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre appeared on CNN Thursday evening to tell anchor Don Lemon the plan could cost about $24 billion a year, based on 75% of those eligible taking advantage of it. The price tag would be closer to $320 billion with 100% participation.

“The other piece of this is… too is we’re going to see,” Jean-Pierre said of the estimated cost, sounding a lot like Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

“I said assuming people take us up on this student debt relief plan that the president put forth that’s why I said, assuming 75%, so we are going to share what that’s going to look like. I wanted to give you a little bit of what we’re thinking how this is… how this is going to move forward,” she added.

Jean-Pierre’s $24 billion estimate is taken from an analysis from the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, which showed that the program will cost between $440 and $600 billion, settling on a central estimate of approximately $500 billion, according to Fox News.

While addressing the cost at a news briefing earlier in the day, Biden’s spokesperson claimed the plan to cancel thousands of dollars in federal student loan debt for millions of Americans would “be fully paid for because of the work that this president has done with the economy,” as she declared “the president’s record on fiscal responsibility is second to none.”

“All of this when it comes to cost will also depend on how many of the loans canceled were actually expected to be repaid, it will depend on how many borrowers actually take up this opportunity before we have a real sense,” Jean-Pierre said.

Saying “we’ve done the work right to lower the deficit,” she dismissed the likelihood that the program will increase the deficit, adding that “$50 billion per year is going to go back” to U.S. coffers once student loan repayments start in December.

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, took to Twitter to interpret the White House stance: “We believe in Santa Clause. And unicorns. And pixie dust!”

The GOP senator is not alone in his skepticism… here’s a quick sampling of other responses to the story on Twitter:

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