President Obama announced Wednesday he will issue an executive order for the federal government to reduce student loan payments with measures that almost surely will have taxpayers picking up the tab. Americans owe $1 trillion in college debt, and some 1.6 million have subsidized student loans, which Obama federalized in 2009. 

The president said student loan payments will now be capped at 10 percent of a debtor’s income above the poverty line, and dissolve after 20 years.