Political Quotes

“Reserving the right to object, I would like to focus on three words Senator Burr discussed, and they are ``unsustainable,'' ``everybody,'' and ``fix.'' I heard all three, and I think all three are very important words here. Let's go through this and figure out what it is the Senator is proposing and what it is we need to do. Right now we have a student loan program that produces $51 billion in profits this year off the backs of our students, $51 billion. Yes, I think that is unsustainable. We must find a way to deal with that. In fact, Republicans did put a proposal on the table. Their proposal would have increased profits to the Federal Government from the student loan program by another $16 billion. The Republicans' plan was to say let's take a debt load that is already too difficult for students to deal with and let's make it harder. That is, in my view, completely unsustainable. We have to do better than that. The question the Senator also raises is one about everybody: We need to fix this problem for everybody. I agree with the Senator. We do, indeed, need to fix this problem for everybody. Let's think about what this is. What we are talking about is student interest rates that are about to double. What the Democrats have proposed, what I propose in the original request for a UC, is that we not let those interest rates double.…”