Political Quotes

“the Senator from New Hampshire is always eloquent as she is fighting for students in New Hampshire. I want to assure her and any of those 5,000 New Hampshire students who already have a Perkins loan are not affected by this. In fact, almost no students across the country who have a student loan are affected by this. There are about $8 billion worth of outstanding Perkins loans out of $1.3 trillion in student loans. We are talking about less than 1 percent of all student loans. We are talking about students that might be awarded loans a year from now. No one who currently has a Perkins loan is affected by this. What is our goal here? Our goal is to help students afford college. How do you help students afford college, No. 1, by continuing a program that has a higher interest rate than the loan they could get in a regular student loan? No, the Perkins loan rate is higher than the interest rate on a Direct Loan that every single undergraduate student who applies for federal aid is entitled to. No. 2, by continuing the Perkins loan which does not have the income-based repayment program offered in the Direct Loan program? What is that income-based repayment plan? It says that you can pay your loan back over 20 to 25 years, not paying more than 10 percent to 15 percent of your disposable income each year. If you are a teacher or a firefighter or if you have a lower-income position, you are not treated the same as someone with a higher income.…”