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Saturday, June 29, 2013

Republicans leave town letting Student Loan Rates to Double. Democratic Rep. Ron Kind and Sen. Elizabeth Warren try to prevent GOP plan to profit of Students.

They're gone. The 4h of July holiday started a week in advance for our freeloading do nothing Republican politicians. 

They're scaring families across America with their free market stunt to rake in interest profits for banks by tying the percentage to the market. Hey, somebody should make something off our future business owners and employees.

I should also note that our own state Republicans froze tuition in the state due to recent UW surpluses in an attempt to portraying themselves as the great protectors of family budgets, when if fact it was just another way to cut funding to the UW. If they're honestly concerned, why allow the doubling of interest rates? This really is all just a troubling game to them.

Rep. Ron Kind has been on this for some time, releasing this call to action today:
Rep. Ron Kind (D-WI) called on House majority leaders to cancel the upcoming holiday recess and take action to prevent the doubling of student loan interest rates. If Congress does not act this week, interest rates on federally subsidized Stafford student loans will jump from 3.4% to 6.8% on July 1st.

“It’s no wonder that Americans across the country have such a low opinion of Congress, if some members can’t even agree that affordable education is good for the economy and good for the future prosperity of our country. Congress should not leave town for recess and allow more students to fall into a financial bind,” continued Kind. 

“Even worse, the Republican plan to address this issue would have made our students pay even higher interest rates, putting them deeper in debt. I voted against that plan because it’s just not fair to use our students’ money to pay down our national debt.”

Earlier this month, Rep. Kind signed a discharge petition—a procedural motion that frees up a bill that has been blocked in a Congressional committee—to force an up or down vote on the Student Loan Relief Act, a bill that would extend the 3.4% interest rate on Stafford loans until July 1, 2015.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren had the best idea, that never got any traction:


Huffington Post: Legislation from Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) to reform the federal college loan program has garnered more support than any other proposal, with six more college presidents now endorsing her plan to dramatically lower interest rates for students.

Warren's bill, the first she's authored as a senator, would tie the interest rate on federal Stafford loans to the rate banks receive from the Federal Reserve, lowering student loan rates from as high as 6.8 percent to 0.75 percent, and saving students thousands of dollars. A recent poll conducted by Public Policy Poling showed widespread support for lowering federal student loan rates, with 60 percent of respondents saying they back Warren's idea, including 56 percent of Republicans. Despite this popularity, Warren's bill has not come up for a vote in Congress.

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