The cart-horse fallacy here is strong.

All federal student loans have been eligible for income-based repayment since 2009. All federal student loans have also been eligible for infinite deferral, too. That whole Snidely Whiplash "hey law student I'll raise my rates but it won't matter because you'll never pay it" thing is an utter ruse, too, as student loan balances are absolutely used in calculating credit risk.

The "public sector" canard is thin AF, too. We've been trying to qualify for that for a good six years now - but in order to qualify our employees we have to serve at least 35% medicaid clients. We've been at 29%-33% since we opened and to qualify your facility has to be certified, and as best as we can figure out nobody has accomplished that without being sited on a Native American reservation. Sure - you can work for the government but then this

Suppose a student will make 150k per year for 10 years working in the public sector.

Is revealed to be the fairy tale it is. Contractors aren't eligible - trust me, I know several. You have to be ass-in-chair working for the government for ten years and I have yet to meet anyone who has done that (and I used to consult about 80% on government projects and interact about 80% with government employees). And $150k a year is like "be an assistant coach on a Big 10 football team" money. For example.

Finally, most of the reforms within the plan affect bachelor's degrees only. There's no cap on advanced degrees. So that magic $150k a year job is for... what exactly? Not a lawyer. Pharmacist, maybe? "Government pharmacist" is a pretty narrow profession. The 10% cap applies to undergrad; the 15% cap for graduate degrees is unchanged.

But let's take the whole argument as if it were being made (A) in 2009, when income-based repayment was first instituted or (B) in 1978, when it became illegal to disburse tuition debt in bankruptcy:

I dunno, chief. The former is from $8k to $9k. The latter is from $2k to $8k. Somehow I don't think income-based repayment is the problem. Prolly more like turning education into an inelastic good with elastic pricing.