Date: 2012-04-25
Speaker: GEORGE MILLER (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: California

Thank you very much. JOHN. Thank you for taking this floor time for this debate. and thank you for the effort and the fight that you have led on making it in America. so that. once again. America makes things. once again America has a robust manufacturing economy. whether its this iteration of manufacturing or the next iteration of manufacturing. that America remains competitive around the world in making it in America for sale around the rest of the world. Nothing could be more important to sustaining our manufacturing base in this country. to sustaining our ability at innovation and economic growth that takes place as a result of that innovation. than the education of our young men and women throughout this country. And nothing is more important to their wellbeing and their familiesand this is proven out every year as we do studies. that years of college and college completion are very important to the economic security of that individual and that individual and the family that he or she may form later in life. It pays huge benefits for them to go to college. and thats why weve tried to make college affordable. Many of us are very upset with the costs of college. how the costs have gone up. have doubled in many ways across the States. But the fact of the matter is. while were struggling with the issues of cost of college and trying to get the States to do more on behalf of the their public institutions. the fact of the matter is we have to make sure that college remains affordable for young people. And thats why. in 2007. we made a decision to lower the interest rates on student loans so that it would be more affordable for the students. not only to go to college. but also then in paying back the debt that they incurred because of the subsidized student loans. And we made that effort. and we did it on bipartisan basis at that time. And President Bush signed that legislation into law. and we put some of that money into deficit reduction and into reducing the interest rates. In 2010. we followed on with legislation proposed by President Obama and our committee and others to make sure that we could increase the Pell Grant so those students most in need. those families most in need would have the Pell Grant as an underpinning of making college more affordable. We continued with the subsidized student loans to make college more affordable. We went to an incomebased repayment system so that a student that may be starting out in a good career but a bad entrylevel pay scale as they begin that career will be able to pay back their student loan and also continue on with their life. and as they make more money. they pay more money. And its very important so that they can choose a profession of their passion. not just the profession that yields the most money. because many of our students. the minute they heard about this program said. I can now be a nurse. I can be a public health assistant. I can be a prosecutor. I can be a public defender. what their passion was in life. They could be a teacher and now know that they could afford to pay back their student loans. And the interest rate is very important at this time as families and young people try to figure out what their indebtedness is going to be and how they are going to pay for college. especially at this time of the year when young people are getting their acceptance notice from universities and colleges all across the country. and now they sit around the kitchen table with their families and say. How are we going to afford this? Whats the debt we are going to end up with? And its an important procedure for families to go through as they think about this. But all of a sudden. now. we see that when the President submitted his budget looking forward to July of this year. he asked that we continue to keep the interest rate at 3.4 percent. Thats very important. Thats the choice that President Obama made. The choice that the Republicans made in the Ryan budget was to let it go to 6.8 percent. In fact. there was a unanimous vote on the Republican side for the Ryan budget to let it go to 6.8 percent. We think thats wrong. We think thats unfortunate for families in the middle of this economic turmoil that were coming out of in this country. They need these assurances. We think that interest rate should stay at 3.4 percent. Of course. we want to pay for it. Just as we paid for it for the first 4 years. we want to pay for it again. We believe that that should come out of the unfair tax breaks that are extended to oil companies that cannot be justified when the price of oil is $104 a barrel. They get the tax break when its $134 a barrel. They get it when its $150 a barrel. We think that time has come and gone. that the oil companies can continue to pursue the quest for oil and the recovery. and we appreciate that. The fact of the matter is price alone provides them the basis on which to go out and seek out the hydrocarbons necessary for our economy and for the world economy at this time. So. this is about choices. Do you believe the interest rate should be 3.4 percent or do you believe it should be 6.8 percent? By a unanimous vote. the Republicans said it should be 6.8 percent. But I have to tell you today. Im quite excited. this dramatic turn of events where the Republicans today have said that they want to keep the interest rates at 3.4 percent. and we welcome that. We welcome the fact that when they saw the President out in the country talking to young people. talking to parents. knowing that these parents and young people are going through this process of figuring out how to finance their education. that he made a compelling argument that this interest rate should remain for the next year at 3.4 percent. that the Republicans have come and decided that they embrace that provision. I was excited when I saw their Presidential candidate said he was for this. I was excited this morning when I read in the paper that the Republican leader in the Senate said nobody is against this. Oh. yes. my friends on the other side of the aisle were unanimously against this a week ago. But I think the President sold this idea to the Nation and apparently sold the Republican Party. and we should welcome that because thats in the interest and benefit and we should work together to make sure that this happens on behalf of families and on behalf of young people. But. of course. theres always a kicker when the Republicans do this: Our choice is an unjustified tax cut to the largest oil companies in this country and. in some cases. the world. that we should stop providing these tax subsidies to those oil companies. Their choice. unfortunately. is this: to wipe out and to repeal the preventative medicine account in the Affordable Care Act. in the health care reform act. to wipe that out. So where do we find the Republicans paying for their desire now to join the President and lower the interest rates to 3.4 percent? They wipe out immunization programs for young children. So children now. were going to send either less healthy children and children with fewer immunizations to school and in our community. or those parents are going to have to pay for it and they cant afford that. Thats why were doing that. They also chose to knock out screening programs for breast cancer. Once again. just as the Affordable Care Act extends health care to women. stops making women a preexisting condition. that their gender denies them health care automatically under the current insurance systems or makes it so expensive that its very difficult for them or their families. just as thats within the reach of women. the Republicans take away the preventative care that extends that screening to millions of women across the country. Then. of course. the screening for birth defects for couples that are concerned or that have been told by their doctor that their child may have birth defects or that the pregnancy may be with birth defects and the choices and the difficulties that they have to make. But that screening is important in terms of early interventions. in terms of turning around the outcomes for these children. So thats where the Republicans chose to get the payfor. to go to those most in need. to go to those who have been denied health care for generations because of their gender. because theyre women. and we all know in our family. in our friends. in our neighborhood. in the communities we represent. what women encounter with breast cancer and the importance of screening. Somehow theyve decided that thats how they will pay for reducing the interest rate from 6.8 percent on July 1 to 3.4 percent. I urge them to join us and to pay for this in essentially a painless way with respect to these unjustified subsidies for the largest oil companies in the country. Its very important to the agenda.