John Tierney: “I thank the gentleman for yielding, and I draw the point that was mentioned earlier that the Democrats made a promise to…”

“I thank the gentleman for yielding, and I draw the point that was mentioned earlier that the Democrats made a promise to keep these loans at 3.4 percent, and the promise is being broken. It's being broken by this bill, this proposal by the Republican Party. We kept our promise through the entire reauthorization of the Higher Education Opportunity Act, and 2 more years in addition. This is the proposal now. We say stay at 3.4 percent. Republicans say, no, jack it up more than double on that basis. I join with millions of students and parents and organizations that represent them in strong opposition to this Making College More Expensive Act that's before us here today. My Republican friends talk about how this bill is simple and predictable. It's predictable all right. I predict the rates are going to go right up beyond the 6.8 percent rate. We've already seen that from the Congressional Research Service, a nonpartisan group that says, if we pass this Republican bill, those rates will go up more than double on that basis. It is not simple. They would have you believe through this debate that the rates are going to go down to market rates, which, at the current time, are lower. They would if you followed our bill at 3.4 percent. But if you went with this bill of Making College More Expensive Act, it sets it low for the first year but it rewrites the second year, and it resets the third year and it resets the fourth year.…”