White House dodges direct questions on who will pay for massive student loan handout

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Doocy and Jean-Pierre spar on student loan handouts

Fox News White House correspondent Peter Doocy questions press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre about President Biden’s student loan handouts.

The White House on Wednesday declined to say who will be on the hook for a massive $300 billion student loan forgiveness plan announced by President Biden moments earlier.

During a news briefing, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre outlined the benefits of the plan but skirted questions about who will pay for it when asked by Fox News correspondent Peter Doocy.

"When you forgive debt, you're not just disappearing debt, so who is paying for this?" Doocy asked.

Jean-Pierre replied that once the pause on student loan payments is lifted at the end of 2022, the funds will "offset a lot of what we're doing as well."

"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."

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President Biden waves after returning to the White House in Washington to announce his student loan forgiveness plan on Aug. 24, 2022. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

Doocy further pressed Jean-Pierre on who will be on the hook for the tab.

"But somebody's paying for it. Who?" he asked but received no direct answer.

Biden announced Wednesday that he will deliver on a campaign "commitment" to cancel $10,000 of federal student loan debt for certain borrowers making less than $125,000 per year, and up to $20,000 for Pell Grant recipients, while extending the pause on federal student loan payments through the end of the year.

The president said during remarks at the White House that by resuming student loan payments that have been frozen during the COVID pandemic "at the same time as we provided targeted relief," his administration is taking an "economically responsible course."

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"As a consequence, about $50 billion a year will start coming back into the Treasury because of the resumption of debt," Biden said, adding that experts "agree that these actions taken together will provide real benefits for families without meaningful effect on inflation."

Fox News' Brooke Singman contributed to this report.