Confucius Never Said

Confucius Never Said

An Unforgivable Mistake

If President Biden forgives student loans, he will make an unforgivable mistake

Helen Raleigh's avatar
Helen Raleigh
May 04, 2022
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man wearing academic gown
Photo by Charles DeLoye on Unsplash

President Biden is contemplating forgiving some student loan debt through executive action. Should he do so, he will make an unforgivable mistake. 

There is no question that student loan debt is a serious problem in our country, but it is a problem created by government policies. I wrote about how government policies were the root cause of this student loan mess we are in today, and I think it is worth repeating.

America's student loan saga began with President Lyndon Johnson's 1965 Higher Education Act, which put taxpayers at risk by letting the government guarantee student loans made by private financial institutions. President Richard Nixon's Higher Education Act of 1972 established Sallie Mae, a government-sponsored enterprise. Sallie Mae was authorized to borrow from the U.S. Treasury at below-market rates to purchase federally guaranteed student loans from banks, thus freeing capital so private banks could make even more student loans.

The abundan…

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