Political Quotes

“Mr. President, the choice before the Senate yesterday was very difficult. If we had failed to pass the student loan bill, students and their families would be stuck with interest rates for student loans that are double what they were just last year. American students and parents who worry every single day about whether they can afford college cannot be burdened with such an enormous rate hike. The cost of tuition at public 4-year colleges is up more than 15 percent since 2009. Student loan debt has reached historic proportions. Yet we allowed the rate on new federally subsidized student loans to double, to 6.8 percent, as of July 1. If we had allowed this rate increase to continue, we would have subtracted thousands of dollars from the wallets of American students and their families or, worse, be responsible for pushing college beyond the financial means of some families who already wonder whether they can afford to give their kids the education they need and deserve. The bipartisan legislation we passed yesterday will temporarily resolve this crisis for American families, but it is far from perfect. It switches these interest rates for these critical student loans from fixed rates to floating rates, with caps that are far too high. This opens the door to rising interest rates 4 years from now that students and their families simply cannot afford. The student debt problem which for many families is a student debt crisis requires a carefully considered long term solution.…”