President Barack Obama's plan to lighten the payback burden for student loans boosts loan forgiveness, says Jeffrey Dorfman, an economist at the University of Georgia.

Obama is easing payback requirements through executive order. "Whether constitutional or not, he appears to believe that he can add more students to the eligibility list for a program he created by regulation in November 2013," Dorfman writes on Forbes.com.

"This 'Pay-As-You-Earn' program is partly about lowering the monthly payments to make student loans more affordable for graduates, but mostly it is the foot in the door to student loan forgiveness."

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Obama will permit former students who meet income requirements to pay only 10 percent of their discretionary income for up to 20 years, Dorman explains. And for workers in government/public service jobs, debt is forgiven after 10 years.

The government already subsidizes college education through a variety of programs, he notes. "This loan forgiveness program increases the federal subsidy of college education to a whole new level," Dorfman says.

"This enormous expansion of federal government largess is unnecessary and incredibly unfair."

The Detroit News editorial board apparently agrees. "Obama has spent the past year trying to manipulate the cost of student loans," they write. That's not likely to help students, the editorial says.

"In fact, the short-term student loan solution the president pronounced [last] week is better seen as a mid-term election year gimmick."

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