Political Quotes

“If I could tie this all together, what we're talking about with pay-as-you-go, and the gentlewoman talks about the energy bill. And the gentleman from Ohio talked about the College Cost Reduction Act dealing with student loans. Let's tie this together. What does it mean to pay as you go, to pay for what you're doing? Well, with the College Cost Reduction Act we did things that are going to substantially improve the lives of middle-class Americans all across this country. They're going to make a real difference for families in America. We cut in half the interest rates on student loans from 6.8 percent to 3.4 percent, which, by itself, if we did nothing else, would save the average student on student loans in this country over $4,400 over the lifetime of their loan. But we didn't just stop there. We increased Pell Grants, the staple of student support in this country, to $5,400, the largest increase in the history of that program. And we capped at 15 percent of discretionary income the amount that the borrower, after they graduate, would be required to be burdened with debt to repay their student loan. These are things that are going to make a big difference. But they cost money. It had a $20 billion price tag, which is a substantial amount of money.”