Political Quotes

“What didn't exist when my colleague went to college and graduate school was that we didn't have an income test for repayment. We don't charge anybody over 15 percent on an annual basis. When the Senator went through the system, he was responsible to pay back 100 percent of it. Today, after a certain period of time on the subsidized loans, we forgive it. We have a lot of programs that didn't exist when he went through school. We have Pell grants that extend a tremendous amount of money that is not obligated to be paid back-- $4,000. We have student loan higher education tax credits that did not exist when he went through college. We have a basket of products. What we are looking at is, How can we take one program, which is the rate-based program, and make it as attractive and affordable for students as we possibly can? Under this scenario, we are able to accomplish that for 64 percent. Under what we will vote on, we only do it for 26 percent. We can't help but make the argument: You are overcharging here to subsidize here. I agree with my good friend from Iowa, for whom I have great affection, that I want to make sure every student has an opportunity to go to college and that it is affordable for all. We have a system right now where the Federal Government controls 100 percent. When my good friend went through college, there were private lenders that competed with the Federal Government. At this time we have no private lenders.…”