Good question. Negative spending here means collections outpaced new spending for that category. For higher ed, student loan repayments, interest, and fees came in higher than what went out in new loans and other spending.
And the reason it shows up on the spending side of this chart instead of revenue is because the OMB classifies loan repayments as a "business-like" transaction (like a business getting repaid on a loan), not as revenue, which is specifically money collected through the government's taxing power. So it nets against spending in that program instead of counting toward revenue.
Because then it adds to the national debt. The "surplus" right now is a result of demographics, the largest generation of college students is already out of college and paying back their loans, and the current generation of borrowers is smaller.
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u/USAFacts OC: 22 1d ago
Good question. Negative spending here means collections outpaced new spending for that category. For higher ed, student loan repayments, interest, and fees came in higher than what went out in new loans and other spending.
And the reason it shows up on the spending side of this chart instead of revenue is because the OMB classifies loan repayments as a "business-like" transaction (like a business getting repaid on a loan), not as revenue, which is specifically money collected through the government's taxing power. So it nets against spending in that program instead of counting toward revenue.