Heidi Alexander: “I thank the Senator from Michigan. It could be my numbers are wrong. I think the 7 million student figure is actually a…”

“I thank the Senator from Michigan. It could be my numbers are wrong. I think the 7 million student figure is actually a very good billboard for why not to support the Democratic proposal but to support the bipartisan proposal because what the proposal of the Senator from Michigan will do is keep rates high for 7 million middle-income students whom her proposal does not help. There are 11 million students across this country who are going to college this fall. They will take 18 million loans out. They will borrow over $100 billion. What happened on July 1 was that the rate went back up to 6.8 percent for the loans that are for the lower income students--only those. For the loans that go to the middle-income students--and my understanding is there are about 7 million of those-- it stays right where it is: 6.8 percent. Under the bipartisan proposal, their rates would be 3.66 percent. In other words, the bipartisan proposal would not only create a permanent solution, but it would lower rates--it would lower rates almost half-- for the 7 million middle-income students who otherwise would be twisting in the wind for the next 10 years paying higher rates-- hundreds of millions of dollars of higher rates. So the number 7 million, I believe, is correct, I would say to the Senator from Michigan, but that is the number of middle-income students who are going to be paying higher interest rates under her proposal. I am glad she brought up the number.…”