Political Quotes

“I appreciate the work of the Senator from Rhode Island and Senator Harkin. Of course, Senator Reed has been working on this issue for months and months. I am still amazed that the Senate refuses time and again and the House refuses to do the right thing. This started back in 2007. It was bipartisan with President Bush, with the Democratic House and the Democratic Senate. The Presiding Officer was involved, Senator Reed and others, and we passed it. We did a 5-year freeze of interest rates. Now the bipartisanship seems to have gone, and repeatedly this body has either failed to step up or actually voted no or voted wrong in some cases to move forward on this. As Senator Reed has said, I, too, have tens of thousands of people-- 380,000 Ohioans--who are now in the Stafford subsidized loan program. It will mean about $1,000--as it will in Rhode Island--per student, per year if we fail to act by July 1. I have been at four campuses just in the last month or so. I have been at a community college in Cleveland, the University of Cincinnati at the other end of the State, Wright State University in Dayton, and Ohio State University in Columbus. I saw students--one was from the Young Republicans on one of the campuses and others are Democrats-- trying to find a way to pay their bills. They are working-class kids, middle-class kids, poor kids--kids who want to find a way to get ahead. We hear the same stories over and over, but let me just share one.…”