Pete Domenici: “This bill provides some very, very good deductions and credits for going to college. So a tax cut, as I view it, is long…”

“This bill provides some very, very good deductions and credits for going to college. So a tax cut, as I view it, is long overdue. In 1948, American families sent about 3 percent of their income to Washington for taxes. Today it is closer to 25 percent. I believe it is much better to leave more money in the hands of our families and our parents and our people. This bill provides eight separate provisions that help finance college. The most significant is a $1,500 tax credit for 50 percent of the tuition for the first 2 years of a 4-year college; 75 percent of the tuition paid at a community technical school. I believe the committee designed these right and I believe they make good sense. There is the deductibility of student loan interest. This provision automatically shifts the benefit toward children of low- and middle- income families. The $2,500 deduction of student loans and the interest on them is well designed, and it will produce some powerful incentives as students graduate for them to get on with their lives and get out from under the debt burden as soon as possible. This bill makes an exclusion of $5,525 worth of education assistance.”