Date: 2005-12-16
Speaker: GEORGE MILLER (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: California

Mr. Speaker. I thank the gentleman for yielding me this time. Maybe the gentleman who was just in the well preceding me is proud of this budget. I noticed he talked about student loans and how the students will get the same loan they got this year. They may get that loan. but it is going to cost them more. In fact. what we see in the estimates are that this budget bill will raise the average cost to those students or those families who are paying off those loans. The average student who borrows $17.500. and that is what. unfortunately. the average student borrows today. this will raise December. 16. 2005 their cost by $5.800. almost $6.000 in additional costs. That is what comes with this bill. The $13 billion is the largest cut in the student loans accounta in this history of this Congress. that $13 billioi rebounds back onto these parents and to these students to the tune of $6.000 over the life of their loans. If that is your idea of a Christmas gift. have at it. but I do not think Americas families are going to understand. At a time when we understand how important it is for young~people to be able to get an AA degree. to be able to get a B.A. degree. to get a Masters Degree or to get a Ph.D. so that they can fully participate in the American economy of the future. a globalized world economy. what is it the Republican budget is doing? It is raising the barriers. It is raising the barriers for millions of young students. for millions of families as to whether or not they will be able to afford this college education. Students are going deeper into debt today than at any time in history. The cost of a college education is rising faster than the average working familys ability to pay for it. And what is the answer to that crunch that these families and these students are finding themselves in? The answer in this" budget is to increase their costs by $6.000. For 50 years. the idea was to try to make college more accessible. less expensive. so that the vast majority of people who were qualified to go to college Would have the opportunity to do so. This year. they changed the course of this Nation. This year. they changed the course of this House This year. they changed the course of the Congress. Because on a partisan basis. on a partisan basis. they decided that what they would do to the crunch and the cost of college for American families is they would increase the cost of college to Americas families by charging parents more to borrow money. by putting origination fees on the direct student loan. which is the least expensive way people can borrow money. You are raising the cost of the direct student loans by mandating insurance on all of the borrowers. whether it is necessary or not. You are very fond of telling us when you put these taxes and these costs on the business communities they are passed on. Well. that is exactly what is going to happen to the tune of about $6.000. These costs are going to be passed on. We should vote to support the motion to instruct so we can prevent these costs from falling on these families and these students not only at Christmas time but for the next 5. 6. 7. 8. 10 years.