Political Quotes

“Mr. President, unless we act quickly, students across the country will face the largest increase of subsidized student loan interest rates in more than 40 years. In the last 40 years, the interest rates on subsidized student loans have never doubled from one year to the next. Yet that is what is happening unless we act before July 1--just 52 days from now. Unless my colleagues on the other side of the aisle relent and allow legislation to fix this problem to come to a vote, we will see a doubling of the student loan interest rate from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent for all borrowing going forward for education in the United States related to the subsidized Stafford loan program. I know the Presiding Officer of the Senate, Senator Brown of Ohio, has been taking an active leadership role on this front, along with Senator Harkin, to ensure we can move effectively to prevent this doubling of the interest rate. We are now in a time where, if you look across the financial industry, borrowing rates are at historical lows. We are essentially providing banks, through the Federal Reserve, with near zero percent interest loans. So it is incomprehensible that at this time, we would actually double the loan rates we would charge students who are going to college. Students and families cannot absorb these increases. It is a tough economy, and they are facing rising tuition and dwindling State support for higher education, making it more difficult and more complicated.…”