[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 8]
[House]
[Page 11268]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




               PROTECTING THE STUDENT LOAN INTEREST RATE

  (Mr. COURTNEY asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. COURTNEY. Last Friday, President Obama signed into law a 
bipartisan compromise which extended a lower student interest rate of 
3.4 percent. Incredibly, the ink was barely dry on that measure when 
the Romney campaign introduced their higher education plan, which would 
take us back to wasteful taxpayer subsidies to private student loan 
lenders.
  This is what the conservative Cato Institute said about that 
proposal:

       A meaningless change from a college affordability 
     standpoint. Obviously, it would have an effect for banks, who 
     would be happy to go back to that. It was a great gig for 
     them.

  A Romney supporter at the new New America Foundation said on this 
issue:

       On this issue, Romney is just ridiculous. His campaign 
     staff doesn't have any new ideas. So they just said, Let's go 
     back to what we were doing before the Obama administration.

  For young Americans, the choice this fall is becoming clearer. We 
have a President who successfully challenged this Congress to protect 
the lower student loan interest rate, and his opponent, who is looking 
to take $60 billion in taxpayer funds and give it away to special 
interests.

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