[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 5]
[House]
[Pages 7080-7081]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                       REDUCE STUDENT LOAN RATES

  (Mr. DeFAZIO asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. DeFAZIO. Madam Speaker, on July 1, student loan interest rates 
are set to double on their loans from 3.4 to 6.8 percent.
  After initially resisting making any adjustment in proposing actual 
further cuts in student financial aid, the Republicans said, No, wait a 
minute. We'll bring up a bill. We'll take care of that for 1 year. You 
just have to eliminate funding for public health and preventive health 
care.
  Student loans or preventive health care and public health. They say 
that is the choice we have to make. We don't have to make that choice. 
There's a much better choice. If we raised taxes 1 percent on income 
over $380,000 a year, your taxes would still be lower than in the 
Clinton era, and we could fund a permanent reduction in financial aid 
for students.
  I know at the country club they're not hearing much about people who 
can't afford to go to college. But I tell you what, for the people in 
my district and the people I represent, their kids are loading up with 
debt. It is going to hobble them after they graduate from college.

[[Page 7081]]

  We've got to reduce these rates. We've got to reduce them 
permanently. Why not ask those who have made it fabulously and earn 
over $380,000 a year to contribute 1 percent to that cause?

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