Political Quotes

“I take this time to urge my colleagues to allow us to move forward in the consideration of the Stop the Student Loan Interest Rate Hike Act so we can allow the interest rate on student loans to remain at its current level rather than doubling, which will happen on July 1, unless we take action. I come to the floor to express the views of many Marylanders with whom I have talked about the cost of higher education. We cannot allow the interest costs to go up. It will affect 7 million students and their families. We already have too much college debt that families have to incur as a result of the cost of a college education. We are not competitive with the rest of the world. We look at countries with whom we compete and we look at the cost of higher education in their country compared with what our students have to endure, and we start off behind because of the enormous cost to a family to afford a college education for their children. We know how important it is. You need to have a college degree in order to be competitive in many fields today. That number of fields is increasing every day. Let me tell you, we have crossed the $1 trillion mark in debt held by families in order to afford a college education. Two-thirds of that debt is held by people who are under 30 years of age. Here they are, trying to start out in life, trying to have a family, trying to buy a home, and they have this large amount of debt. College debt now exceeds credit card debt in America.…”