Political Quotes

“first I have an item I want to speak about on the pending bill. There is another item I want to discuss, first of all, but even before that, I want to add that I caught the tail end of the statement of the Senator from Illinois about student loans. When I first arrived here in the Senate and I was sworn in right where our pages are sitting now, I had over $100,000 in student loans that I had taken on during my undergraduate but primarily my postgraduate education. I can state that had it not been for the blessings of the proceeds of a book that I wrote called ``American Son,'' I am not sure I would have ever paid those loans off. I was fortunate. I went to law school and got a law degree and was employed. I know firsthand the struggle that millions of Americans are facing and the young people who have taken on substantial student loan debt, some of whom have never graduated from institutions and others who have graduated, frankly, with pieces of paper of degrees that, unfortunately, are not worth the paper they are printed on. As a result, they are stuck with a debt that can never be discharged. There are only two ways to get rid of a student loan--die or pay it off. For many people, paying it off is not going to happen. It is an issue that this Senator hopes Congress will confront. It is a looming crisis in America. There is over a trillion dollars of student loan debt. Quite frankly, it holds people back.…”