On the recordMay 23, 2013
It's important to remember how we landed in this predicament to begin with. Why are we now facing this student loan interest rate cliff? In a push to win votes during the 2006 campaign cycle, Democrats pledged to cut student loan interest rates in half across the board permanently. After gaining control of Congress in 2007, they realized this campaign promise was far too expensive. Instead, they championed legislation to phase down gradually the interest rate on one type of Federal student loan--subsidized Stafford loans made to undergraduates--from 6.8 percent to 3.4 percent over 4 years. Once the law expired in 2012, the interest rates would jump back up to 6.8 percent. Instead of working with Republicans on responsible solutions that would help make higher education more affordable for students in the long run, the Democrat Congress chose to make false promises to borrowers and kick the can down the road. Democrats had an opportunity to fix this problem. In 2009, they passed the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act, which produced large budgetary savings by eliminating the private sector loan program. ``Savings'' should be in quotation marks, Mr. Speaker. But instead of making good on their campaign promises of lower student loan interest rates, Democrats spent all of the funds on other pet projects, including siphoning $8 billion from Federal student aid programs to pay for ObamaCare.…
