On the recordApril 25, 2012
Well, thank you very much. Let's stay on this student loan issue for a while here. This is the reality of student loans. The debt levels, according to the Federal Reserve Bank--and some of this has just been recently updated--student loans comprise a larger portion of the personal debt in America than credit cards and auto loans. Actually, the number recently, just in the last couple of days, has risen to about $1 trillion of outstanding student loans in the United States. The auto is about $700 billion, and then the auto and credit cards about $700 billion. So we're talking about a huge amount of outstanding money. When you double that interest rate, you're hitting right at the gut of every student and those who have graduated. When you combine that with the Republican blueprint of immediately requiring a larger payment on graduation, you're really stifling the economy. I know you've wanted to talk about this, Mr. Clarke, about the way in which the Republican proposal would actually slow down the economy by denying--well, go ahead. You and I were discussing this earlier.
