> Part of the argument was the government owns 90% of outstanding student loan debt. Don't know how true this figure is but that's their claim. At least accord

> Part of the argument was the government owns 90% of outstanding student loan debt. Don't know how true this figure is but that's their claim. At least according to http://money.cnn.com/2017/01/18/pf/college/navient-sallie-mae-sued-cfpb/index.html http://money.cnn.com/2017/01/18/pf/college/navient-sallie-ma..., by borrower count, roughly 50% are federally backed and 50% are private. However, even for the federal loans where taxpayers are the lender[1], there's still a choice whether to retire the debt or leave the debt as-is and fund something else (like tuition for future students). [1]: More on federal loan funding, ie, which government entities are actually the lenders: https://www.loan.com/student-loans/where-does-funding-for-federal-student-loans-come-from.html https://www.loan.com/student-loans/where-does-funding-for-fe...