WASHINGTON — The Senate floor was all Minnesota's for about 20 minutes on Tuesday, just hours before the Senate failed to pass a bill Tuesday to keep interest rates on student loans from doubling over the summer.
Democratic Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Al Franken gave back-to-back speeches on the rising cost of higher education and their support for a Democrat-backed plan to keep the 3.4 percent Stafford student loan interest rate from doubling on July 1. The bill would eventually fail a procedural vote on Republican objections to the way Democrats planned to pay for the bill’s $6 billion cost.
Both Klobuchar and Franken have met with Minnesota students on the cost of college. Klobuchar was at the University of Minnesota last week to discuss the issue and Franken was recently joined by student government leaders from around the state in announcing an effort to better inform students about the true cost of college before they attend.
The two speeches were based around these meetings — Klobuchar said she met with a U student who was working 50 hours a week to help pay for school, and Franken highlighted a group of Minnesota State Colleges and Universities students who visited him in Washington to discuss ways to bring down the cost of college.
Democrats and Republicans generally agree that an extension of the lower student loan interest rate is necessary, but like so many other matters Congress has considered this session, they’re hung up on how to pay for it. Republicans favor instituting spending cuts (and passed a bill in the House two weeks ago to zero-out a component of President Obama’s health care reform law as a pay-for), while Democrats support closing certain tax loopholes, a funding mechanism included in the Senate bill Tuesday.
The final vote was 52-45. It needed 60 votes to pass.
It hadn't occurred to me before reading a different article elsewhere, that the interest students pay on their government loans are a source of income to the government. So they want to allow the doubling of the rate strapped students are paying, while continuing to maintain the tax cuts to the already successful upper level taxpayers. And only back in the 90's, did they change the law so that students could not default on their student loans?
What has happened to the idea that it is in our national benefit to have a well educated workforce?
We have saddled our already bedeviled middle and working class, including many senior citizens who are having their Social Security raided by the government for non-payment of loans either for themselves, or that they have co-signed for their children and grandchildren. What the ......?
Seems to be the same idea behind the fact that overwhelming medicals bills can not be thus discharged either. But corporations have no problem getting out from under their mismanagement.... And they do not lose their home, etc. in the process
this follows romney's ideaology that students can just ask their parents for the money or borrow it . maybe we can get them all to win 10,000.00 dollar bets to support their education . where do these people come from. lets make sure we issue a new mandate this november to let these brilliant republicans know what we need. that money could easily come from the romneys by closing a couple of loop holes and we could support other good american values.
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Why are student loans a source of funding for our government?
It hadn't occurred to me before reading a different article elsewhere, that the interest students pay on their government loans are a source of income to the government. So they want to allow the doubling of the rate strapped students are paying, while continuing to maintain the tax cuts to the already successful upper level taxpayers. And only back in the 90's, did they change the law so that students could not default on their student loans?
What has happened to the idea that it is in our national benefit to have a well educated workforce?
We have saddled our already bedeviled middle and working class, including many senior citizens who are having their Social Security raided by the government for non-payment of loans either for themselves, or that they have co-signed for their children and grandchildren. What the ......?
Seems to be the same idea behind the fact that overwhelming medicals bills can not be thus discharged either. But corporations have no problem getting out from under their mismanagement.... And they do not lose their home, etc. in the process
republicans choose to drive us further into the ground
this follows romney's ideaology that students can just ask their parents for the money or borrow it . maybe we can get them all to win 10,000.00 dollar bets to support their education . where do these people come from. lets make sure we issue a new mandate this november to let these brilliant republicans know what we need. that money could easily come from the romneys by closing a couple of loop holes and we could support other good american values.