On Tuesday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “Special Report,” Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) stated that he’s already hearing from people who paid off their student loans or didn’t go to college wondering why we should forgive student loans, “And I don’t know what the answer is.”
Host Bret Baier asked, [relevant exchange begins around 4:15] “We’re getting word right now that it is going to happen tomorrow and there is going to be some kind of cap, $125,000 or something. But even politically, do you worry, from your side of the aisle, that there will be people that say, I paid off my loans or people that don’t go to college saying, why do I forgive this?”
Leahy answered, “No question about it. I’m already hearing that from Vermonters. And I don’t know what the answer is. I would have loved it when I finished college and law school if somebody paid off all my debts. But I realized I was committed to them and I had to pay them off. But that was at a time when college cost nowhere — even in real dollars — nowhere near what it costs today. I think the whole cost is spiraling out of control and it’s discouraging a lot of young people from going to college.”
Earlier, Leahy said he worries that loan forgiveness will tell colleges, “charge whatever you want, we’re going to forgive the loan.”
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