Political Quotes

“very soon the Senate Labor Committee will convene to consider how to meet the reconciliation instructions contained in the budget resolution approved earlier this year. It will mark the seventh set of reconciliation instructions sent to the Labor Committee since 1981. The major entitlement program within the jurisdiction of the Labor Committee is the Stafford Student Loan Program. As a result, it has been the primary target in each and every reconciliation. Over the course of the past 14 years, in reconciliation and related deficit control measures, we have made almost 50 major changes in the loan program. Some are prudent and defensible; others were not. While I have played an active role in meeting each of these instructions, I have done so with deep reservations. The primary motive in reconciliation is to save money. Unfortunately, determining whether or not the change has merit and constitutes good public policy has all too often been lost. As I have indicated, some of the changes we have made under the pressures of reconciliation have been good; some have not. In 1981, for example, we imposed a 5-percent origination fee on all loans. Thus, a student who applied for a $2,000 loan would get only $1,900 but would have to repay the loan as if he or she had received the full $2,000. This was intended to be a temporary measure to save money; it became permanent and deserving students were the losers.”