Am I missing something, or does getting married force you to pay more in this situation?

I don’t know how I overlooked this, but someone help me makes sense of it.

Have I screwed myself from a number’s perspective by getting married?

Correct me if I’m wrong, but when single, I can use contributions to a traditional IRA to reduce my AGI, thereby reducing my minimum payments towards my loans. Since I’m shooting for 120 payments to get forgiveness, I want to pay as little as possible. IRA contributions also reduce my taxable income.

However, if I get married, then my spouse’s income is used against me in my minimum payment calculations. But if I file separately, in order to prevent that, then I can’t deduct my IRA contributions from my AGI which now would neither reduce my tax obligation nor my payment calculation.

Am I missing something, or does getting married force you to pay more in this situation?