Pete Hoesktra, Michigan Senate Candidate, Wants To 'Kill Federal Student Loans'

[Galraedia]

Source: Huffington Post

WASHINGTON -- A video of Republican Senate candidate Pete Hoekstra vowing to end all federal student loan programs has surfaced on YouTube, putting the Michigan conservative on the radical fringe of a hot-button 2012 campaign issue.

Speaking before a Tea Party audience in January, the newly surfaced video shows Hoekstra falsely claiming that President Barack Obama "federalized all the student loan programs," and boasting that, "I tried to kill federal student loans for 18 years. Loans are something that can be done by the private sector."

Watch the video, taken by a Democratic source:

Hoekstra's remarks referred to a student loan reform bill that Obama signed in March 2010 as part of his administration's health-care reform legislation. The student loan initiatives that Hoekstra attacks have always been "federal" -- in so far as they have been backed by federal government guarantees for as long as the programs have existed.

Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/14/pete-hoesktra-michigan-federal-student-loans_n_1515160.html?ref=politics

[sakabatou]

1. Yes, let's make sure that only people who can pay for college up front

can go to college.

[Turbineguy]

2. Probably a smart and money saving move in his case.

Why contribute to send somebody to college when you are just going to kill them later? Of course if the republicans could make colleges more dangerous and violent, helping somebody attend might be good policy.

[hawaii73]

3. Another Right-Wing Whackjob

Look who he is talking to -- Tea Partiers. Those nutjobs get all excited when people start talking about cutting any kind of federal program and laying all the blame on Pres. Obama. I guarantee many of these people either used or had their children use Federally-subsidized student loans at some point. I'd like to have asked them how many of their children/grandchildren were able to attend college because of these loans. This is your Republican party at its finest right there!

[askeptic]

4. Well, maybe he's right - can't discharge in bankruptcy

unlike any other kind of debt. Colleges constantly raising tuition so students can go further into debt for a degree that won't get 'em a job. Sometimes I think the loan program keeps the costs going up because the loan creates artificial demand. I know this view may not be popular here, but until this debt is just like any other unsecured loan, I wouldn't advise anyone to take it.

[truebrit71]

5. What an ass-carrot

Fuck that guy.

Twice.

[cstanleytech]

6. Perhaps the guy is right?

I am not saying people shouldnt get a chance at such an education but if the problem is largely due to for profit colleges perhaps the answer should be to direct more of the money to non profit colleges that are state owned and admit students based on grades and income level and designed so that those with lower incomes but excellent grades still have an equally fair shot?

[Occulus]

8. You CAN'T honestly believe that's what he meant. n/t

[cstanleytech]

14. No, I am saying perhaps he is right as far as doing away with most of the loans but

not for the same reason he wants but rather because imo some of the loans are darn right backbreaking so instead funnel the federal money to the non profit colleges in order to provider a cheaper alternatives especially to those who least can afford the tuition of the for profit colleges.

[alp227]

12. Hoekstra is advocating letting Wall Street control all student loans.

In other words, student loans will soon become a way for capitalist predator pigs to make a quick buck, if Hoekstra had his way. And yes, for-profit colleges should stop getting Ed Department Welfare. I can't find any evidence of Hoekstra getting campaign contributions from the for-profit colleges.

[Iris]

13. Exactly. And people aren't in dept to their eyeballs b/c of federal student loans.

There's a cap to those and the interest rates are traditionally low and tax deductible.

My friends who are in the worst debt have federal loans AND private loans. The private loans are what are killing them

[harmonicon]

7. 1. It's "Hoekstra", and 2. He's scary.

I don't think he'll win, but he was in congress for a long time and is well like by Michigan Republicans.

[sulphurdunn]

9. Teabagger has different

connotations. Dirtbagger does not.

[jwirr]

10. If they get away with this our nation will be in Norquist's bathtub. But then that is what they gop

is trying to do.

[jtuck004]

11. I agree. Student loans are nothing more than a morally bankrupt way to inflate fees and profit from

the investment we as a country make to educate our people. We should no longer allow the banks and schools that profit from this to rob us.

Along with ridding ourselves of this burden we would then increase the Pell Grant Subsidy from the paltry 35 Billion of today to about 500 Billion. And, frankly, with that we could open up adult learning centers across the country offering a base degree for every single American, designed to teach them to learn, and providing them with a laptop to do so.

Later, if the student is able to get a job and has some disposable income, they can find more affordable and specialized resources.

Because what we have is unsustainable.