Heidi Alexander: “I would like to congratulate the Senator from North Carolina for his proposal. The two votes we are having today are…”

“I would like to congratulate the Senator from North Carolina for his proposal. The two votes we are having today are like the opening act at the circus, and hopefully the main event will attract some Senators who are willing to conduct this in a grownup way. We do not really have a disagreement here; we have a serious issue. We have students graduating all over the country from high school at about this time, and about 70 percent of them will go to college next year. The taxpayers want to encourage that. We spend about $35 billion in Pell grants to help pay for that. Then three out of four of those students who go to college will go to public colleges and universities--like the Universities of Michigan or Mississippi or North Carolina or Tennessee--the taxpayer helps foot the bill for that. Then the taxpayer is going to loan $133 billion this year in student loans to students of all kinds. What the Senator from North Carolina and the Senator from Oklahoma have suggested--and I have joined them--is that we take advantage of today's low rates and that we lower rates on all the new loans to something below 5 percent, fix that rate for those students who get their loans this year, and allow them to participate in the income repayment program so when they take a job they will not have to spend too much of their money repaying back the loan. In some cases, it can ultimately be forgiven.…”