University president slams Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan

On Aug. 30, Purdue University president and former Indiana governor Mitch Daniels appeared on Fox News to discuss the student loan forgiveness program recently announced by President Biden.

Daniels did not pull any punches, calling the plan “grossly unfair to those who lived up to their responsibilities or never went to college at all." He then said that it will be “grotesquely expensive and will aggravate our already terrifying national debt.”

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The former governor also charged that the plan is “cynically political,” noting that it comes just before the midterm elections. He also pointed out that “[i]ts proponents, even the President himself, Speaker Pelosi, and others, admitted not long ago they didn’t have the legal power to do this, now they seem to have discovered they have.”

Many experts share Daniels’ concern. The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, for example, warns that the handout will cost between $440 billion and $600 billion to pay for across the next decade. 

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Another group, the National Taxpayers Union, reports that if this burden were distributed evenly among taxpayers, it would cost about $2,500 per person. 

Mitch Daniels, the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, and the National Taxpayers Union have all been contacted for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.

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