Biden’s student-loan debt forgiveness would cost $300 billion, report says — less than half of the defense budget

Student loans currently aren’t even profitable for the government. A July report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that federal loans are actually projected to cost the government $197 billion, instead of bringing in what the Education Department estimated as a $114 billion profit, because of the various pauses and changes over the last couple of years.

The price of student-loan forgiveness pales in comparison to other major federal expenditures. Defense spending is projected to cost nearly $8.7 trillion over the next decade, according to the Congressional Budget Office, and will cost $796 billion in 2022 alone.

That $300 billion is also a fraction of how much borrowers hold right now; America’s student loan debtors currently owe $1.7 trillion.

While Biden has not publicly confirmed his plans for broad student-loan relief, he has said himself he will make the decision before August 31, when student-loan payments are set to resume. In April, he shot down $50,000 in relief — an amount many Democratic lawmakers and advocates have been pushing for — and recent reports have suggested his final amount will be near $10,000, which he pledged on the campaign trail.