@tntrecycling :
The debt wasn't wiped. The burden was shifted to waitresses, plumbers, and school cafeteria workers instead of the kids who took out the loans. The debt is still very much there, but now it's the working class who will have to pay it.

It's not like every student loan borrower got off "Scot free". They had to have made at least 120 monthly payments and work in an approved public service job. If you total up the amount they had paid, it equals or exceeds the amount borrowed in many cases. The interest is the killer, just like the interest on credit card balances.From Google: "Seeking forgiveness under Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF)? The PSLF Program forgives the remaining balance on your Direct Loans after you've satisfied the equivalent of 120 qualifying monthly payments (10 years) under an IDR plan while working full-time for an eligible employer."

My 2 cents:
I get the concern. College tuition/ costs are outrageous. But...some of me thinks it's voter pandering

The forgiveness isn't far reaching. My son has a physical disability. He's working, but below a living wage. His loans aren't forgiven.

@ProfessorPlum : Not true at all.

@ProfessorPlum :
Ones who go to college have a choice.
Let's go get a loan and let you pay it.

@tntrecycling :
The loans are often predatory. Pay the monthly payment for decades and owe more than borrowed. that's predatory. If you have been paying, without being late, for 10 years, you've paid your dues.and higher education used to be free. IMO, it should still be. All higher education, college or trade schools. That's how we will be able to compete on the global stage. It should be tied to aptitude and not how many bucks daddy has.

@AverageSue :
I understand.
Forgiveness at a cost.

Back a good number of years ago, I went to college for $36 a semester. That covered the "Activity Fees". In return, I had to teach in the state of Illinois for at least 5 years or pay what the normal charge would have been.

Components of a federal student loan are simple. There are two pieces to it.There is the 'promissory note' which is held by the government.
There is the debt, which is owned by the student.That is it. When a student takes out a student loan, a note is made and the consequent debt is incurred. A sum of money is credited on the students behalf. The value of the promissory note is what is paid by the student.A bank has to have three components.... first they have to have the money to lend out. Then a promissory note is created along with the debt obligation by the borrower. That promissory note can be bought and sold to others. This happens often with mortgages.Some key distinctionsA bank has to have the money on hand to lend out. The federal government does not. The federal government has the super power to literally create/print money out of thin air. Before a federal student loan is created, there is no money. Just a note and an obligation to pay are created. They balance each other and that is enough. If the debt is cancelled and the note voided there is once again no money. The only thing 'new' that was lost is the interest that was paid. Another distinction, is that the federal government does not sell student loan debt. If they did, then the pre-existing money would be made real as the money would come from some would be investor. Banks... often sell of their debt, particularly mortgages. They loan out as a mortgage, $100,000 to someone. The note is sold, probably to an investment fund which bundles up mortgages, and the bank gets their $100,000 or so back immediately. Now the investment fund holds the note...and collects the payments from the borrower. Private student loans issued by a bank, have to have pre-existing money and they can potentially be sold off to another investor.Anyone holding a note can cancel the debt owed. A bank or investment fund can cancel your mortgage.... they probably will not because they want the principle and the interests. It can happen and sometimes by court order.Of course all of this is muddled by reporting. By way of accounting the debts and amounts 'loaned' out are tallied up. The federal government lends out a billion dollars... out of thin air. That billion dollars was not there before. When cancelled it won't be there after. Who paid for it? The students did, until it was cancelled. There was never a note sold. No one else was ever on the hook for the cancelled debt. It is in effect turned into a grant.

Like everything else just sign me up to keep me working paying bills for education that is not even worth the paper it's written on.
While our country overflows with ones have no want of this education.

But then you will whine about jobs being taken over by foreign companies. I guess that's difficult to understand.

I don't remember anyone complaining when all the pandemic loans were forgiven.

Some good points made on both sides of the proverbial coin so far. What hasn't yet been mentioned is that Biden defied a 6-3 Supreme Court ruling, which said he does not have executive authority to take the actions he did. I believe that 23 states (so far) are suing his administration because of this. I have no personal dog in this fight, but direct defiance of a Supreme Court decision seems to me to be quite the slippery slope for any administration, both now and in the future.

@Turnit10 :
I believe that SC struck it down because of the category he was using for the EO. So he went a diff route.