President Joe Biden's decision to partially erase the colossal American student debt will cost the federal government $400 billion, the Congressional Budget Office estimated in a report published on Monday (September 26th).
This new estimate, requested by elected conservatives and emanating from an official and apolitical body, should pour oil on the fire of the lively controversy between Democrats and Republicans on the question.
Republicans indeed accuse President Biden of financial waste with this measure which he announced on August 24, believing that public money could be used much more efficiently.
Read alsoJoe Biden donates $10,000 to 43 million indebted students
Resuming a campaign promise, Joe Biden promised to erase $ 10,000 of debt for people who did not benefit from a federal scholarship for their university studies, and $ 20,000 for those, with more modest means, having received a grant. .
This measure, concerning people earning less than 125,000 dollars a year, continues to spark a lively debate in a country where a year at university can cost tens of thousands of dollars.
The estimate of the cost of the measure is fueling a major technical debate between experts and economists, in particular because of the uncertainties linked to the loan repayments already made by the former students concerned by this debt cancellation.
“The Congressional Budget Office itself calls its estimate
“highly uncertain.”
We agree
,” commented a White House official.
