Student Loans

Floor Speech

Mr. WELCH. Mr. Speaker, in 2 days, interest rates on student loans are going to double from 3.4 to 6.8 percent. It is outrageous, it is unnecessary, and it is cruel.

Across this country, the things that will happen in Vermont are going to happen to all our kids and their parents. In Vermont, 20,000 kids are going to have their loan's expense go up $1,000. That's when the cost of education has gone up 27 percent in the past 5 years. Vermont has the seventh highest student loan debt in the country. Sixty-three percent of our kids, when they graduate, it's $29,000 that they start out owing. We are first when it comes to debt-to-income ratio--82 percent. It's brutal.

What is this about? It's about our priorities. In a low interest rate environment, government borrowing at 2 percent, we are going to charge nearly 7 percent to our kids. That's almost like usury. It is also a reflection of our priorities.

There is a way we could extend this, as we should. Why do we shovel taxpayer money to oil companies that have $1 trillion in profits in the past 10 years? It is unnecessary.

Around kitchen tables in Vermont, people are trying to figure out who is going to college and how our kids are going to get started.

Source