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Democrats bash Republicans for blocking student loan bill
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05/08/12 05:42 PM ET
Senate Democrats responded with strong criticism to Senate Republicans' successful effort to block moving forward on legislation keeping student loan interest rates from doubling.
The criticism came after Senate Republicans successfully voted down a motion to move forward on S. 2343, the Stop Student Loan Interest Rate Hike Act, in a vote of 52 to 45. The legislation would have kept the student loan interest rate on Stafford loans from rising to 6.8 percent from 3.4 percent. If Congress does not act, the rate increase sets in on July 1st.
"It appears things that used to be bipartisan —whether it was the debt ceiling or the transportation bill or a whole host of other things— has become far too partisan," Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) said Tuesday afternoon.
Brown, one of the main backers of the legislation, read a number of stories of college students who benefited from the current Stafford loan interest rate.
"I just urge my colleagues to listen to these stories and to read some of these stories and to vote accordingly when we bring this bill back up to the floor," Brown said.
The Ohio Democrat added that the Republicans' opposing vote to the bill was "pretty unconscionable."
Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) called the vote par for the course for Republicans lately.
"Their M-O for the last year and a half has been obstruct without leaving finger prints. In other words they want to obstruct everything, they want the government to be a mess, they want people to be unhappy so they'll change things in the election," Schumer said. "But they know if they're caught obstructing it's not going to work out too well for them."
The GOP opposition to the legislation centers around the funding method. Democrats want to pay for the $6 billion rate extension by closing tax loopholes on shareholders of S-corporations. Republicans, in contrast, want to extend the current rate for a year taking money from a fund in the Obama administration's healthcare reform law. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) called the Republican GOP plan a "Faustian bargain."
The criticism came after Senate Republicans successfully voted down a motion to move forward on S. 2343, the Stop Student Loan Interest Rate Hike Act, in a vote of 52 to 45. The legislation would have kept the student loan interest rate on Stafford loans from rising to 6.8 percent from 3.4 percent. If Congress does not act, the rate increase sets in on July 1st.
"It appears things that used to be bipartisan —whether it was the debt ceiling or the transportation bill or a whole host of other things— has become far too partisan," Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) said Tuesday afternoon.
"I just urge my colleagues to listen to these stories and to read some of these stories and to vote accordingly when we bring this bill back up to the floor," Brown said.
The Ohio Democrat added that the Republicans' opposing vote to the bill was "pretty unconscionable."
Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) called the vote par for the course for Republicans lately.
"Their M-O for the last year and a half has been obstruct without leaving finger prints. In other words they want to obstruct everything, they want the government to be a mess, they want people to be unhappy so they'll change things in the election," Schumer said. "But they know if they're caught obstructing it's not going to work out too well for them."
The GOP opposition to the legislation centers around the funding method. Democrats want to pay for the $6 billion rate extension by closing tax loopholes on shareholders of S-corporations. Republicans, in contrast, want to extend the current rate for a year taking money from a fund in the Obama administration's healthcare reform law. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) called the Republican GOP plan a "Faustian bargain."
"This Republican filibuster against bringing down the interest rate on student loans —we now have an empty floor. Whoever thought it was a good idea for us not to debate and not to vote on this increase, they're not even here," Durbin said. "I hope tomorrow when the dawn breaks and a new day in the Senate opens, that some Republicans will come to the floor and explain this filibuster on college student loans. It's unfair to the students, to the family, to our country."
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