NEW: Sen. Brown Calls for Bipartisan Effort on Student Loan Issue
Saturday, May 12, 2012
U.S. Senator Scott Brown in a taped statement today.
“Most students and parents know that in July, the fixed interest rates on subsidized government student loans are set to double from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent.” Sen. Brown said in a taped statement. “First, let’s be clear – the vast majority of the members of Congress want to prevent that from happening. Just about everyone supports extending the current low interest rates. The question we have to answer is, how do we pay for the $6 billion price tag?”
That question is what Brown hoped to answer today in a video statement to the Commonwealth. Brown said he voted down the aforementioned bill because it had no bipartisan support, and would pay for keeping interest rates low by raising taxes.
“Many of you may have followed the Senate action this week where unfortunately, we voted on a bill that was not bipartisan and had no hope of passing. It was purely a political stunt,” Brown said. “The only bill we were allowed to vote on was paid for by raising taxes once again on the backs of our small business owners. It’s just not right to raise taxes on our job creators, especially in the middle of the economic downturn. In the end, the vote was meant to divide Washington—not actually help people with student loans.”
Now Brown is calling for a bill with bipartisan support that would have compromises on both ends. His offered compromise would keep student loan interest rates at 3.4 percent for another year, while cutting down on what referred to as “wasteful spending.”
“The Federal-State Unemployment Insurance programs made an estimated $13.7 billion in improper payments to entities or individuals that didn’t deserve your tax money,” Brown said. “Supplementary Security Income made an estimated $4.6 billion in improper payments to entities or individuals that, once again, didn’t deserve your money. There are many other examples of waste. The one that always drives me crazy is where we spend over $1 billion dollars of your tax money in payments to people that are actually dead. Can you really believe that?”
Brown ended the video saying that he hopes his proposed bill will be a starting point for bipartisan negotiation on this issue. For more information on Brown and his campaign for reelection, click here.
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