Political Quotes

“Madam President, let me commend Senator Stabenow, Senator Harkin, Senator Warren, Senator Franken, and Senator Hagan, particularly, who is the cosponsor of the legislation I have proposed. My proposal would keep the student loan interest rate for subsidized Stafford loans at 3.4 percent while we deal with a very complicated and complex set of issues. It is not just the rate structure; it is the issue of providing appropriate incentives to control the costs of higher education. It is also the issue of refinancing existing debt and prospective debt so that this huge wall of debt, the avalanche of debt affecting college graduates and professional school graduates today, can be addressed. I don't think we can do that--because these are complicated programs--off the cuff, as we are attempting to do today or as we have been over the last several days. It turns out that if we do not extend this rate for at least a year, but instead take up the so-called bipartisan proposal eventually rates will rise on students across the board. That is because the law now calls for a 6.8-percent rate for the Stafford subsidized and unsubsidized loans and 7.9 percent for PLUS loans--fixed rates--and in order to score this as a zero in terms of the Congressional Budget Office and deficit effects, we have to over that time make up all of that interest.…”