Frank Pallone: “The gentlewoman could not be more on point, believe me. That is exactly what I was hearing, as I said, for the 3 weeks…”

“The gentlewoman could not be more on point, believe me. That is exactly what I was hearing, as I said, for the 3 weeks before the Democratic Convention when we went to Chicago. I had forums, town meetings every night and a lot of times during the day, and that is what I kept hearing over and over again, that people want the Government to be involved in positive ways, to help them with educational programs, for example. I mean I had a forum in Piscataway, which is one of the towns that includes Rutgers University or different parts of Rutgers University in my district, and people would come up and say, look, we cannot afford higher education. We like the fact that the President has expanded now a national direct student loan program, we like the fact that AmeriCorps is in place and you can work and get a student loan and pay it back through working while you are in college or afterward. Expand the opportunities, use the Tax Code, if you will, as you suggested and as the President suggested and mentioned at the Democratic Convention, use the Tax Code to give the deduction, that we can deduct tuition or that we can get the tax credit for the first 2 years of college, as the President suggested, the HOPE scholarship for example.”