[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 9 (Wednesday, January 17, 2007)]
[House]
[Page H633]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               WHERE DEMOCRATS REALLY STAND ON THE ISSUES

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Oregon (Mr. DeFazio) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. DeFAZIO. Mr. Speaker, the gentleman from North Carolina who 
preceded me in the well was saying, ``Those Democrats, they just want 
to raise taxes and spend.'' I would look at the legislation we passed 
today with 124 Republican votes as an example of where Democrats really 
stand on the issues.
  Just about 1 year ago today, almost exactly a year ago today, the 
Republican Party passed legislation called reconciliation that actually 
raised the cost of student financial aid, dramatically raised the cost 
of student financial aid. It also did one other thing to ``save money'' 
or ``create revenue,'' which is it cut medical care for needy 
Americans.
  Now, we have got to be fiscally responsible, but what they did with 
this money was cut taxes for wealthy investors, extend tax cuts for 
wealthy investors that were going to expire in the year 2008, not 
exactly an immediate problem, to 2010. They paid for that by raising 
the cost of student financial aid; i.e., taxing students and cutting 
medical care for poor Americans; i.e., taxing poor people or taking 
away needed health care. That is his model. He says we are the ``tax 
and spend'' folks.
  Well, look at what we did today in legislation that passed with 124 
Republican votes. We said it was wrong for the Republicans to jack up 
the cost of student financial aid. The cost of a higher education is 
beyond reach of too many Americans and we think people should have a 
chance at the ladder of success. Key to that is education, and we want 
to make education more affordable and more accessible. Today was the 
first step, and only the first step in our plan to help make higher 
education more affordable.
  So I guess he would say we are taxing the banks; i.e., we are asking 
the banks to pay part of the cost here to lower the interest rate on 
student financial aid.
  Now, these bank private loans are losers for the taxpayers. We have 
in fact a government study that says if we converted the whole loan 
program in this country to national direct student loans administered 
by the universities and overseen by the government, we would make 
money, even with the defaults. But in order to continue the subsidized 
bank program which he was up here defending, we are getting back 84 
cents on the dollar.
  The American taxpayers are subsidizing banks to offer loans on which 
they make a pile of money, and now he is aggrieved that we have asked 
the banks to lower the interest rate over 5 years. I would like to 
lower them tomorrow, and they shouldn't have been raised. The 
Republicans shouldn't have raised the cost of student financial aid to 
fund tax cuts for wealthy people.
  Now, if they want to have more tax cuts for wealthy people, then they 
ought to find a way to responsibly finance that. Personally, I don't 
think wealthy people need more tax cuts. In fact, I think they have 
gotten way too many.
  And he did not talk about the fact that we are borrowing money to 
finance tax cuts for the wealthy, that we are dinging people who need 
medical assistance to finance tax cuts for the wealthy, that we are 
heaping the costs onto students to finance tax cuts for the wealthy. If 
that is what he calls tax and spend, then that is what I am.

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