Marco Rubio on student loan vote: "Surreal, listening to Dem colleagues lecture me"
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., was among the Senate Republicans blocking a Democratic-led effort to freeze student loan rates.
By a 52 to 45 vote, with Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, voting "present," the Senate fell eight votes short of the number needed to cut off the debate and move forward. Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., voted for moving forward with debate.
Republicans objected because Democrats wanted to close a tax loophole to fund the plan. The House of Representatives has passed legislation to freeze the rate, which would double to 6.8 percent July 1 if nothing is done. But Democrats disliked the GOP-authored House plan because it cut money for health care.
Rubio took to social media to explain his vote, saying this on Twitter: "As maybe only Sen paying a #studentloan surreal listening to Dem colleagues lecture me on #studentloandebt."
Rubio said he supports "a hundred percent making sure that the interest rates on student loans do not go up," but doesn't support the Democratic plan.
The 40-year-old senator still pays Sallie Mae each month for his law school education. It's an estimated $101,000 to $250,000 debt, according to his most recent financial disclosure report.
He's not the only high-profile U.S. leader who's griped about about paying back the loans. It's also become a frequent refrain on the campaign trail for President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama.
"Loved" the part... "Rubio said he supports "a hundred percent making sure that the interest rates on student loans do not go up," but doesn't support the Democratic plan."
I mean, really. Does he really think we're that stupid? His "a hundred percent" is zero when the President is involved.
With all the fat $$$ from republican campaign support, Rubio obviously isnt losing sleep over his own student loan debt. So why so we? More useless representation from our great state of Florida. Thanks to Sen Nelson who supported the bill.
The tax loophole in question allows wealthy individuals to avoid paying Social Security and Medicare taxes on some of their income.
Quote from: copperfiend on May 09, 2012, 11:02:08 AM
The tax loophole in question allows wealthy individuals to avoid paying Social Security and Medicare taxes on some of their income.
Now, who is living in surrealism?
Quote from: copperfiend on May 09, 2012, 11:02:08 AM
The tax loophole in question allows wealthy individuals to avoid paying Social Security and Medicare taxes on some of their income.
On the majority of their salary income, actually. Anything over $106K is exempt.
This drama about student loan interest rates is ridiculous to me because if Congress had not changed the Stafford Loan interest rate formula in 2006 this would not be an issue! Stafford loans rates were variable prior to July 1, 2006 and were adjusted yearly. Economy doing good = interest rates go up, economy doing bad = interest rates go down. For loans disbursed before July 1, 2006 the current rate is 2.14% for both subsidized & unsubsidized. That's less than the current fixed rate for subsidized loans!
http://www.finaid.org/loans/historicalrates.phtml
Thanks to their decision I am paying higher interst rates than if they had just left everything alone. Even my "evil" private student loans are at a lower interest rate than my federal loans! >:(
Again in the fight to get O'Bama out of office the most economically fragile of society may end up paying more.
Quote from: Dog Walker on May 09, 2012, 11:11:24 AM
On the majority of their salary income, actually. Anything over $106K is exempt.
Exempt from SS taxes but not medicare taxes. And that's where the loophole comes into question, as I guess some small business owners set up corporations and pay themselves dividends as opposed to drawing a salary. I'm a little confused, but either way that seems sneaky to me!
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/08/senate-republicans-criticize-proposal-to-freeze-student-loan-rates/
The student loan issue is serious, but none of these measures will help it until they look at the root of the problem. Step one should be halting the flow of government aid to students attending kinda-sorta-accredited for-profits. After we handle the basics we can talk about closing (or not closing) loopholes and the like, but the problem will only get worse if we don't deal with it seriously.