Ted Cruz Slams Biden’s Student Loan Plan As ‘Morally Bankrupt’

Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) has released a statement slamming President Biden’s student-loan forgiveness plan, saying it is “morally bankrupt.”

“The highest concentration of student loan debt is held by people in Washington, DC,” Cruz said. “This administration’s policy is to force blue collar workers and American families across the country to pay off the cost of a Washington bureaucrat’s college degree – it’s morally bankrupt.”

“This announcement is a gut punch to every hard working single mother who worked double shifts in order to pay for her own education, every parent who borrowed against their home to send their kid to college, Americans who sacrificed to make responsible financial decisions, and our nation’s veterans and service members who risked their lives to earn the G.I. Bill,” he continued.

“Let’s be clear – there is no way to ‘cancel’ student debt,” Cruz added. “This will cost every taxpayer an average of $2100. Someone will pay the price for this policy and the price is likely to be felt by every American in the form of even higher inflation. This administration is exceeding its legal authority and illegally burdening hard-working Americans with debts they didn’t take on themselves.”

Cruz’s comments come after an analysis of Biden’s student debt cancellation plan from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School found that Biden’s plan will cost around $330 billion, and that it will mainly benefit Americans in higher income quintiles.

As Cruz noted, the plan will also cost the average American taxpayer $2,100, according to a report from the nonpartisan National Taxpayers Union Foundation.

“Some may dispute that taxpayers bear the cost of canceling student debt. But the $329 billion cost of student debt cancellation would be $329 billion previously borrowed from the federal government and not returning to the Treasury. Policymakers will need to make up for that gap in the future with government spending cuts, tax increases, more borrowing, or some combination thereof,” the report explained. “It’s also worth noting that the $329 billion cost of student debt cancellation is more than the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated the entire Inflation Reduction Act reduces deficits in its first decade.”