Give Students Same Rate as Big Banks - Elizabeth Warren

[Bill USA]

http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2013/06/20/student-loan-rates-elizabeth-warren-editorials-debates/2443589/

Every time the government lends at a low rate to a borrower, it invests in that borrower. Right now, the government lends money every day to big banks at less than 1% interest. If Congress does not act before July 1, interest rates on new subsidized Stafford loans will double — and the government will be charging our students nine times as much as they charge big banks.

OUR VIEW: Let markets set the rates

Last month, I introduced the Bank on Students Loan Fairness Act. The idea is simple: For one year, we should give students that same low 0.75% interest rate the big banks get.

Sens. Jack Reed, D-R.I., and Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, have introduced legislation to keep interest rates at their current 3.4% level for two years. Neither is a long-term fix. Instead, both are designed to give us some breathing room to keep rates from doubling while we tackle the problem of rising college costs and a trillion dollars in student loan debt outstanding.

[font color="red"]The student loan program has turned our young people into profit centers for the government.[/font] The Congressional Budget Office says we will make $51 billion in profit from this year's loans. Keep in mind — those are net profits, profits after accounting for the cost of borrowing the money and the cost of writing off bad debts.

Republicans have proposed plans that would generate even more profits for the government. According to the CBO, their plan would combine a floating interest rate and hefty new fees to produce an additional $16 billion in profits. Students cannot — and should not — pay more.
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[blkmusclmachine]

1. In DC, students AREN'T "Too Big To Fail/Too Big To Jail."

DC is a racket.

[JayhawkSD]

2. Better yet, eliminate the need for college loans

Reduce the cost of college education back to where it was when we "worked our way through college."

And, just as important, if not more so, restore an economy were one can make a decent living and support a family by working at a job which does not require an advanced degree.

Does anyone remember how to spell "private sector labor union" these days?

[Uncle Joe]

3. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, Bill USA.

[bluedeathray]

4. Warren 2016 nt

[Igel]

5. It'll mess with the HCRA numbers.

When they redid student loans and federalized the process they had two parts to it. The student loan bill itself was scored--by Congressional fiat--to bring in no money and save the US government no money.

However, the revision would certainly save/yield money, and they knew it. That was one of the funding sources explicitly listed in the Health Care Reform Act. We liked how the numbers were scored for that bill.

Making money off of students was part of the scoring that we liked so much.

[Doctor_J]

6. esp since they are much less likely to need a billion tax dollars

bailout

[midnight]

7. Time to invest in our future.... K&R