The Trump administration's point person for overhauling the federal student loan system abruptly resigned Thursday after calling for the government to wipe out most of the nation's $1.6 trillion of student debt. A. Wayne Johnson -- a Republican and former financial services executive who U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos had appointed to a series of senior roles -- said that the federal government needs to wipe out the first $50,000 of debt owed for higher education by some 42 million Americans. That would jump-start economic growth by eliminating more than $900 billion of federal student loans -- and completely erase the debt for the vast majority of borrowers, he said.