Conservatives claim canceling US student debt will be expensive. They’re wrong

‘Student debt cancellation is not a solution to the student debt crisis. It’s an acknowledgment that somewhere down the line something went seriously wrong.’ Photograph: Allison Bailey/NurPhoto/REX/Shutterstock

Conservatives love to talk about how expensive canceling student debt would be. In the words of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, federal student debt cancellation, even when means-tested, is “​​regressive, inflationary, expensive and would likely do more to increase the cost of higher education going forward than to reduce it”.

Or as Forbes recently put it: “Canceling federal student loans will cost the federal government hundreds of billions of dollars – and it’s the general public that will eventually end up footing the bill.” The author goes on to suggest that this “cost” imposed on taxpayers could threaten vital social programs like free and reduced lunch or any future hope of universal pre-K or guaranteed parental leave.