Ric Keller: “I know what Mr. Davis is trying to do here, and I'm sympathetic. He realizes, like we all do, that people are hurting…”

“I know what Mr. Davis is trying to do here, and I'm sympathetic. He realizes, like we all do, that people are hurting and they're paying higher costs for mortgages and health insurance and gas prices and college tuition. And so for those folks who can't make their student loan payments, let's give them some relief in bankruptcy court. The challenge is, this is going to help a small number of people, but hurt a larger number of people. If you allow this to go forward, then what you have is a much higher risk loan that will result in the lenders having no choice but to charge higher interest rates for new students getting loans, higher origination fees. They will require a higher credit score. Now, since most 18-year-old kids don't have good credit scores, you would have to look to their parents as cosigners. What does that mean? The kids from wealthy families, whose mom and dad have a high credit score and have lots of assets to back up as collateral, nice home, Mercedes, are going to get student loans. The poor kids in the future who you're trying to help whose parents don't have a high credit score are going to have to pay a lot higher interest rate for loans and origination fees. And their mom and dad may not have the collateral to get them a loan if that's required in these private loans. So it's going to have the unintended consequences of restricting credit in the future.”