On August 2, the Congressional Research Service concluded that the student loan “relief” being proposed by Congress would provide very little relief to most students, and many students don’t really need relief in the first place.

This is a classic example of Congress dreaming up a problem that doesn’t really exist, and then crafting the worst possible solution for the pseudo-problem. The Congressional Research Service is a Congressional agency. It’s their job is to research the facts and then provide them to Congress. Congressional researchers are saying what the student loan lenders have been saying all along: the Congressional Democrats have got it all wrong!

According to the report, the average college student would save $18 per month, if the government enacts these reforms. $18 per month! The Congressional Democrats are vilifying student loan lenders, accusing them of all manner of malfeasance, and blaming them for the high level of student loan debt when students leave college. They make matters worse by promising real reform, and the best they can come up with is $18 per month?

$18 per month might buy six gallons of gasoline or three modest lunches at McDonalds. It amounts to $216 per year. They’re complaining about students coming out of school with $25,000 or more in debts at the end of college and the most effective reforms they can come up with will return an average of $216 per year. That’s not real reform. That’s insulting.

FFELP lenders provide far more in relief each year per borrower. Fee waivers, interest rate reductions, consolidations, and outright debt forgiveness allowed under the current system do much more to reduce student loan debt than a $216 reform would.

Aside from the fact that the FFELP programs provide much more in relief right now than the government’s cock-and-bull plan would, most students don’t need relief from student loan debt. For most students, the report finds that student loan debt is entirely manageable when a borrower begins to work full-time.

That’s because FFELP lenders work hard to make sure that students can repay the loans they have taken out. Students can choose to repay loans over 10 years or longer, and there are no penalties for paying off loans early. In fact, early repayment is encouraged because it makes more money available for new borrowers.

Tell your Congressmen and Senators to start paying attention to their own researchers: most student loan borrowers don’t have difficulty paying back their student loans, and the proposed relief isn’t going to help anyone.

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