A key Republican Education Department official and Trump Appointee, A. Wayne Johnson, recently resigned his position and made a radical call for student loan cancellation. Johnson noted that the lending system was “fundamentally broken” and called for loan cancellation for all loan holders up to $50,000. He also called for a tax credit of the same amount for those who have already repaid their loans. Interestingly, Johnson’s plan sounds very similar–and in some ways even more generous–than what presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren is proposing.

This is strong stuff coming from a Republican, particularly one who ran the federal lending program. Johnson’s comments could indicate that this problem is far worse than the Department of Education has said publicly. He noted that he came to this conclusion after having a “firsthand look” at defaults, which we already know are running at about 40% for 2004 borrowers. And those borrowers were only borrowing one-third of what students are borrowing currently. One can only wonder how bad the internal projections must be for more recent students.