Political Quotes

“I am going to be brief, because things went a little longer. First, I have a great deal of respect for my good friend, and he truly is my good friend, the Senator from Tennessee. I understand what he is getting at. I certainly agree with one part of his comments that the unsubsidized and subsidized students should be given good treatment. We should not just aim at 2 million when there are 7 million more. I am on board with that. I would make three points in reference to my colleague's comments and in reference to the bill, and why I am a sponsor of the Jack Reed bill. First, the bottom line is, we here are in this mystical world of baselines. Under present law, the government actually will make about $180 billion from students over the next 10 years. It is revenue neutral in the budgetary sense, but not in the family sense, in the sense that families are actually going to end up paying more. My good friend from Tennessee and many on his side--and they are budget hawks--say they do not want to see that baseline changed. So they have come up with a fine proposal if you believe that you should not change that baseline. But if you believe, as I do, that actually the government should not be making extra money from the students as they pay, even if it means dipping into our Federal accounts to make that happen, then it is not such a fine proposal. But let's not confuse budget neutrality with neutrality between what the government does and what students get.…”