07/31/2024 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 07/31/2024 13:39
WASHINGTON-U.S. Senator Mitt Romney (R-UT) led Senators Bill Cassidy, M.D. (R-LA), Ranking Member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, Tim Scott (R-SC), and Thom Tillis (R-NC) in re-introducing the Student Loan Accountability Act, legislation to prohibit the Biden Administration from cancelling student loan debt at the expense of millions of Americans who chose to not go to college or worked diligently to pay off any student debt. The senators first introduced this legislation in May 2022.
The Biden Administration has already implemented $620 billion of debt cancellation, and combined with newer cancellation plans, all of the White House's recent student debt cancellation policies will add up to$1.4 trillion to the national debt. For comparison, the Biden Administration has spent more on these policies than the federal government has spent on higher education throughout our nation's history. These reckless decisions further fuel inflation for hardworking Americans and unfairly penalize individuals who weighed financial considerations, such as affordability, when making higher education decisions.
"Despite the Supreme Court's ruling last summer that President Biden's student loan forgiveness proposal was unconstitutional, the White House continues to cancel student loans and publicly entertain additional cancellation policies," said Senator Romney. "Not only are the Biden Administration's student loan cancellation schemes morally questionable-forcing hardworking Americans who have already repaid their loans or decided to pursue alternative education paths to foot others' bills-these policies are wildly inflationary, fiscally reckless, and do nothing to actually address the real problem of increasing higher education costs."
"The Biden-Harris student loan schemes do not 'forgive' debt. They transfer the burden from those who willingly took out the loans onto Americans who chose to not go to college or already sacrificed to pay off their loans," said Dr. Cassidy. "These schemes are nothing more than an attempt to buy votes before an election at the expense of taxpayers."
"President Biden's student loan forgiveness scheme is misguided, deemed unconstitutional, and economically regressive- the list could go on. There is no reality where hardworking taxpayers should foot the bill for someone else's degree and be slapped with loans they didn't sign up for," said Senator Scott. "Unfortunately, the Biden-Harris administration's political pandering continues to rear its ugly head and continues to harm the exact people they are claiming to help."
"President Biden's illegal student loan cancellation plan is not only unfair for the millions of people who have worked hard and sacrificed to pay off their student loans. Additionally, hardworking North Carolinians, many of whom do not have student loans themselves, should not have to pay for someone else's degree," said Senator Tillis. "Instead, we must address the root causes of the rising cost of higher education, and I am proud to introduce this legislation with my colleagues to hold President Biden accountable and prevent him from causing more irreparable damage."
The real impact of cancelling student loan debt:
How the Student Loan Accountability Act works: