The administration extended the pause on federal student loan payments. Relief for borrowers, another budget hit for the Treasury.
The political script was predictable: progressives demanded cancellation, conservatives called it a bailout, moderates hedged.
For millions of households, it wasn’t theory. It was groceries, gas, and rent bought with a reprieve. For the country, it was a temporary fix with no structural plan.
Debt that can’t be paid eventually won’t be. The pause delays the reckoning.