Political Quotes

“I think what we are witnessing today are people who have differences in philosophies and want to solve problems with different approaches. I believe the issue before us at noon is a vote on doing no harm. There is not an agreement on both sides of the aisle as to whether we keep the student interest rates as low as possible for an ongoing basis or whether we tie it to market rates going up so that they go up over time. There is not agreement on that. I hope we have an agreement to do no harm. The vote at noon is, let's keep it at 3.4 percent, where it has been, which is, by the way, the market rate. Right now you can go out and get a car--and I encourage people to purchase a new American-made automobile--with a 4-percent interest rate. You can get a mortgage for about 4 percent. Doubling the rates makes no sense, and putting in place something that students are asking us not to do, which starts where we are and goes up over time, does not make sense either. So let's do no harm. Let's vote yes to give us a year. We have people who care about this issue. We can sit down and spend that time working under Chairman Harkin, who is committed to addressing this in a comprehensive way. He is interested in addressing not just the interest rates on subsidized Stafford loans but on all of the issues.…”