Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, that is absolutely the case. Certainly in Brooklyn, which has become now an attractive place for so many people to reside, not just from the city, the region, all across the country and, indeed, the world, yet many of the young people who have moved to Brooklyn who are starting a life in Brooklyn are renting in Brooklyn. They are unable to purchase a home. Some of that has to do with the significant appreciation in home value that we have witnessed over the last decade, but a lot of that has to do with the fact that they can't see their way to either a downpayment on a home or carrying a monthly mortgage, given the student loan debt burden that they have been forced to shoulder as a result of the structure that has been put in place in terms of higher education in America. You made an important observation earlier in referencing the President's plan for free community college education. If we can just dwell there for a second, what is important to note is it used to be the case, for prior generations who started the great American middle class after helping to liberate the world coming back home to America after World War II, that if you just had a high school diploma, for many individuals, that was a pathway into the middle class. That is no longer the case in today's 21st century economy. You can get a high school diploma at a high-quality public school for free without any debt.…”