By Aissa Canchola Bañez and Joanna Ain | April 24, 2025
College is expensive. In fact, over the last two decades, tuition prices have skyrocketed while investments in federal financial aid programs like the Pell Grant have failed to keep up with rising costs. As a result, more and more students and families have had to take on debt to pursue a college degree.
Today, over 40 million Americans owe more than $1.6 trillion in student loan debt. Student debt keeps Americans from saving for retirement, purchasing a home, starting a small business, and even starting or growing their family. Instead of helping working families cover the cost of college and affordably repay their student debt, Republicans in Congress are working to pass a massive tax giveaway to billionaires that will make this crisis a whole lot worse.
Last fall, then-candidate Trump promised Americans urgent action to bring down the price tags of everyday goods. Instead, American families, including those with student loan debt, have found themselves thrown onto a rollercoaster of economic uncertainty with no end in sight. Families sitting at kitchen tables across America are struggling to make ends meet and figure out how they will keep up with the rising costs of food, rent, childcare, medication, and yes, that monthly student loan bill.
Recent data shows that more Americans with student loans are falling further behind on their monthly bills. As families continue to navigate high interest rates, rising inflation, and a slowing economy, household debt is on the rise and national credit scores have plummeted for only the second time in a decade. Troublingly, more than nine million Americans are behind on their student loans and on track to default by later this year. Just earlier this week, the Trump Administration announced plans to begin penalizing borrowers for falling into default by offsetting their tax returns, Social Security benefits, and even garnishing their wages.
It does not have to be this way.
Decades ago, Congress established a critical student loan safety net intended to protect Americans with student loans from having to choose between keeping food on the table or keeping up with their student debt. The centerpiece of this safety net—an option called “Income-Driven Repayment” or IDR—was created to protect Americans from the disastrous consequences of falling behind by tying a borrower’s monthly payment to their income and promising debt relief after 20 or 25 years of repayment.
But for too long, government mismanagement and student loan industry abuses made existing IDR options more of a debt trap—allowing balances to balloon and failing to provide the true financial relief borrowers needed. Many of these systemic failures were what ultimately led the Biden Administration to create the SAVE plan which—before being blocked by partisan lawsuits in federal court—would have:
- Cut monthly payments in half for certain borrowers;
- Allowed more low-income borrowers to avoid payments entirely;
- Protected borrowers from exploding balances; and
- Sped up the timeline for debt relief.
Instead of making college more affordable and helping families crushed by student debt, Republican lawmakers have set their eyes on demolishing this very safety net and pushing millions of their own constituents further into debt. For what? To pay for tax cuts for billionaires.
Republican tax plans put billionaires over working families who are struggling to pay for college and trying to repay their student debt.
In the next few weeks, Congressional Republicans will continue their work to jam through a bill that will deliver massive tax cuts for billionaires and large corporations. They plan to pay for these cuts on the backs of students and families struggling to pay for college and by making massive cuts to Medicaid, SNAP, and other critical programs students and working families rely on.
They’ve already rammed through a budget resolution that paves the way for various committees in the House and Senate to begin crafting these bills. To pay for more tax cuts for billionaires, the Republican budget proposal calls for $330 billion in cuts to education-related programs. While the budget resolution itself does not have details on tax or spending cuts, Congressional Republicans have certainly not been shy about their goals to make massive cuts to programs that families need to pay for college and afford their student loan bills.
Earlier this year, news reports uncovered a policy menu circulated by Republican Budget Committee leaders that included a long list of harmful cuts that could make it even harder for families to afford college and stay on track with their student loans.
Among the more than 50 pages of cuts included proposals that would drastically cut the amount of Pell Grant assistance students could receive—slashing critical funding that around 7 million students, or about one-third of all undergraduates rely on to help pay for college. Also on the menu: reversing decades-old policy and making tuition scholarships taxable, and allowing interest on student loans to start accruing before students even graduate. They’re also considering repealing the tax deduction for student loan interest, which currently gives college grads some relief from the financial burden of student loans.
Congressional Republicans have also signaled interest in incorporating aspects of the College Cost Reduction Act (CCRA) as part of these efforts, which would eliminate the SAVE Plan, gut affordable repayment options, and force borrowers to pay almost $200 more per month or $2,400 more per year on their student loan bills. Making matters worse, Republican lawmakers want to eliminate the promise of debt relief after borrowers have paid their loans for 20 to 25 years, which would force many of the lowest-income borrowers to be stuck repaying their loans until they die.
Recent polling shows that paying for tax cuts for billionaires and big corporations on the backs of students and working families with student debt is incredibly unpopular with voters across all voter demographics. Congressional Republicans know this and are hoping that they can jam this bill across the finish line before the American people notice. We refuse to accept that.
Conclusion
Instead of investing in public education and making college more affordable for working families, the Republican tax bill will make it harder for families to make ends meet and push millions further into debt—all to pay for another round of tax cuts for billionaires.
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Aissa Canchola Bañez is the Policy Director at Student Borrower Protection Center. Previously, Aissa led outreach and engagement efforts for the Office for Students and Young Consumers at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
Joanna Ain is the Policy Director at Families Over Billionaires. She is an expert at building coalitions and cultivating strong relationships with public and private sector partners. She is also a skilled communicator, and has been featured in major media outlets including the New York Times, the Washington Post, CBS MoneyWatch, and CNBC.