The estimate is more than double what the Education Department said the plan would cost. The department said the plan would have a net budget impact of $137.9 billion over the next 10 years, assuming that the administration would be able to forgive up to $20,000 in student loans for eligible Americans and that the volume or quantity of loans issued wouldn’t change.
The Penn Wharton Budget Model, which is a nonpartisan research organization at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania that provides economic analysis of the fiscal impact of public policy, reached a similar estimate—$140 billion—using the department’s assumptions.
