Biden White House fumbles basic questions on student loan handout, won’t answer who will pay for it

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Montage: White House fumbles questions about Biden student loan handout

White House officials often failed to answer questions or gave vague responses to reporters.

White House officials on Wednesday and Thursday struggled with basic questions when pressed on President Biden’s student loan handout, often dodging inquiries on how much the initiative would cost and whether it is unfair to Americans outside the plan’s scope. 

Biden announced up to $20,000 in federal student loan forgiveness on Wednesday. Students who attended college using federal Pell Grants qualify for the $20,000, but those who did not use the program qualify for $10,000 in forgiveness. The handout only applies to borrowers making less than $125,000 per year.

During Wednesday's press briefing, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre tiptoed around the question of who will pay for it when asked by Fox News correspondent Peter Doocy. 

Noting that debt forgiveness does not equate to "disappearing debt," Doocy’s question prompted Jean-Pierre to claim the money generated from interest after the moratorium ends would "offset a lot" of Biden’s plan. 

"When you think about the $4 billion that's going to go back into, as revenue, back into this process as folks paying their college tuition, that matters as well," she said. "We're doing this in a smart way. We're doing this in a way that's going to be effective."

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre speaks during a press briefing at the White House, Monday, June 13, 2022, in Washington. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky) (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

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Doocy again asked Jean-Pierre who would wind up with the bill for the debt cancellation plan, receiving no direct answer. 

A similar back-and-forth occurred on CNN Thursday when "New Day" host John Berman repeatedly asked Education Secretary Dr. Miguel Cardona how much the plan would cost. 

Cardona began by asserting the projections for the plan are "still coming in," offering no numbers. 

"It does offset whatever funds are being placed to help those who are most severely in need to get on their feet again," he said. 

Berman, clarifying that he did not believe the "total cost" of the plan would be offset over time, then asked Cardona how exactly the plan would be paid for. 

"Look, the president has been very clear about reducing the deficit," Cardonal replied, before reiterating his position that the cost of the plan would be offset, and that there should be no concerns about inflation or the deficit. 

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White House Domestic Policy Adviser Susan Rice (R) speaks on President Biden’s announcement of student loan debt forgiveness during a White House daily press briefing at the James S. Brady Press Room of the White House August 24, 2022 in Washington, DC.  (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Biden adviser Susan Rice also received the question of cost on Wednesday, telling a reporter in the White House briefing room that it "remains to be determined."

"It will be a function of what percentage of eligible borrowers actually take up this opportunity," she added. 

"$100 billion, $500 billion?" the reporter pressed, to which Rice gave the same reply. 

The reporter asked Rice if she could provide a "ballpark" estimate.

"I think it depends on the numbers," Rice said, before moving onto the next question. 

According to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, Biden's federal student loan plan will cost U.S. taxpayers between $440 and $600 billion over the next 10 years. Other organizations have put the total cost somewhere between $300 and $500 billion. 

More than 43 million Americans have federal student debt, amounting to a total of more than $1.6 trillion. Nearly one-third of those owe less than $10,000 and more than half owe less than $20,000, according to the latest federal data.

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US President Joe Biden announces student loan relief with Education Secretary Miguel Cardona (R) on August 24, 2022 in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, DC.  (OLIVIER DOULIERY/AFP via Getty Images)

Another popular media question asked whether the plan was unfair to Americans who had already paid off their loans, or had decided to not take out loans in the first place. 

Following his press conference detailing the plan on Wednesday, Biden took several questions from reporters, one of whom asked the question as he was leaving the podium.

"Is it fair to people who, in fact, do not own multi-billion-dollar businesses if they see one of these guys getting all the tax breaks? Is that fair? What do you think?" Biden replied. 

White House Senior Adviser for Public Engagement Keisha Lance Bottoms was faced with the same question during a Wednesday appearance on CNN's "The Lead."

A day prior, Ohio Senate candidate Tim Ryan, D., criticized the decision to dismiss student loan debt for a number of Americans. 

"While there's no doubt that a college education should be about opening opportunities, 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.

CNN's Jake Tapper asked Bottoms whether Ryan’s criticism was "accurate" since there will be working-class people that never attended college paying for loans held by Americans with six-figure incomes. Bottoms quickly pivoted away from the question, instead targeting Republicans. 

"Well, the irony of that Jake is that you have Republicans across this country who are criticizing this, but these are the same people who’ve given billions of dollars in tax cuts to corporations who run up the deficit in this country," she said. 

White House Director of Communications Kate Bedingfield speaks during a press briefing at the White House in Washington, U.S., March 30, 2022.  (REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque)

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White House communications director Kate Bedingfield also declined to defend the fairness of Biden’s student loan handout on MSNBC’s "Hallie Jackson Reports," instead speaking to the tax code. 

"Why should people who did not go to college or who’ve paid off their tuition have to foot the bill as taxpayers for those who do have loans?" Jackson asked. 

"Well, as you heard the president say, he's never going to apologize for helping working people, for helping middle-class people. And that's what this does. This gives breathing room to people who have worked hard, who have gone to college, who are struggling under an enormous amount of debt," Bedingfield said. 

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She continued on by claiming the plan was "fairness writ large," claiming that Biden is across the board making the tax code more fair, and will stop middle-class and working-class Americans from getting "cut off at the knees" while giving the wealthiest a "pass."

Fox News’ Lindsay Kornick, Anders Hagstrom and Brooke Singman contributed to this report.