Brown’s work focuses on pro-family economic policies. He has examined the link between the cost burdens of higher education and the trend of young adults who put off marriage and having children.
He suggests pursuing solutions like increasing options outside traditional higher education, income-driven repayment, and social support for families.
“There are much better ways to ease the burden on people struggling with high student loan debt burdens without allocating what could be $1 trillion for a one-time quick fix that will do nothing to reform the underlying factors driving the cost of college ever higher,” he said.
Critics say policy will raise inflation
Critics on both the left and the right have had a lot to say in the last week, many of whom believe the policy will not hold up in the courts.
Last July, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi said that "people think that the President of the United States has the power of debt forgiveness. He does not. He can postpone, he can delay, but he does not have that power. That has to be an act of Congress."
Pelosi issued a statement praising the proposal last week, but critics across the political spectrum are saying the benefits of Biden’s plan will come at the cost of higher inflation and steeper taxes.
Jason Furman, former Chairman of President Obama’s Council of Economic Advisors (CEA) and a professor of economics at Harvard University, said Wednesday, “Pouring roughly half trillion dollars of gasoline on the inflationary fire that is already burning is reckless.”
“Everyone else will pay for this either in the form of higher inflation or in higher taxes or lower benefits in the future,” Furman wrote in a tweet thread, adding that “A number of lawyers (and political leaders) have argued inconsistent with the law.”
On Wednesday, The Washington Post’s editorial board called the plan “ill-conceived and misdirected.”
“Mr. Biden’s student loan decision will not do enough to help the most vulnerable Americans. It will, however, provide a windfall for those who don’t need it — with American taxpayers footing the bill,” the Board wrote.
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The Wall Street Journal’s Editorial Board added that the plan will further entrench the college debt cycle in America, cost over $300 billion and “benefit mostly college-educated households that don’t need the help.”
“Colleges are sure to exploit the promise of repeated cancellations by hiking tuition and opening new degree programs of questionable value,” the board wrote.
Democrat Rep. Tim Ryan (OH) joined those saying the plan will impose burdensome costs on those who have already paid off their loans or chose to forgo college.
“Waiving debt for those already on a trajectory to financial security sends the wrong message to the millions of Ohioans without a degree working just as hard to make ends meet,” he said Wednesday.
This echoes many on the right, who are saying the plan amounts to “debt transfer.”
The non-partisan Penn-Wharton Budget Model says costs for the total plan “could exceed $1 trillion.”
Catholic nonprofit will continue helping those discerning priesthood, religious life