Republican Group for Student Loan Articles

Republican interviews for Student Loan article:

Olympia Snowe (Maine):
John –didn’t want to give his last name – front office

“The biggest reason for support for or against the student loan bill was more about health care”

“The senator is not on board for a full repeal”

“The reason we opposed the student loan bill is because it was put in with the health care bill”

“This bill is no doubt impacting legislation”

“The bill received no republican support because it was put in with the reconciliation package”

“The opposition was not personal, simply a hardship on the people of Maine”

Orrin Hatch (Utah):
Antonia Ferrier-Senators spokeswoman
“The reason the senator opposed the student loan bill is because it was included in a massive 25 trillion dollar government health care take over. So we can start there”

“This was completely inappropriate they used takeover of the student loan bill to pay for their healthcare”

“The senator opposes the government taking over health care”

Are there plans to repeal? “Well, with complete democratic control, chances of being able to repeal are slim to none. Obama would simply veto any proposal to do that, quite frankly”

“the reality is, in Washington, democrats control the leaver of power”

“the democrats did not have enough money so they included the government takeover of the student loan industry to offset the cost of the bill”

The senator does not believe the government should be in the student loan business, which should be left in the free market. That’s not the hallmark of efficiency”

“The more government take overs, the less ingenuity on the peoples part.”


James E Risch (Idaho):
Kyle-press secretary

“Senator Risch opposed the bill because it amounts to a government takeover”

“the alleged savings the government would make would be pumped back into the health care system. “

Repeal? “There are definitely good portions to both bills, there are portions that he would like to repeal and replace”

“Mostly all of the calls we field in this office are from the people of Idaho staying they did not want the bill passed.”

“Nobody knows what the outcome will be, there are over 2,000 pages of legislation all tied together, the senator would have been more supportive with a bill in which the consequences were known”

“Risch doesn’t think the bill will have a positive effect”

Do you have any idea what this means for students “ Lamar Alexander’s office has a breakdown of what TN students will have to deal with”



Johnny Isakson (Georgia):
Glee Smith-legislative council

Effects: “This will make all students go through direct loan program”

“In the past students can go through direct or neighborhood bank to borrow money, now you can only borrow money from the federal government”

Repeal? : “We can’t really repeal the bill, we’d like to, but we fought for over a year”

“We opposed it, because out of the large schools in Georgia, all said they would rather their students have choices from where to borrow money”

As important as democrats say? “Important but fir a different reason than what they are saying. This bill does not save government money in the long run”

“The CBO scores bills 5 years into the future, 10, 20, 30 years down the road, there are bigger amounts of government money that other institutions cannot use then”

Anything else: “the department is not talking about institutions in PEL program, all those nonprofits and all the money that the banks made, they were really only making a small percent, because they had to put it back into funding for students”

“Now all students go through the department of ed, and they don’t have the capacity to help”

Senator Lamar Alexander, Tennessee.
Almost got interview with press person Ashley Smith, but after speaking to her supervisors and the press office she claimd that “office policy” would not let her answer my questions specifically.
Was directed to the Senator’s press releases on this website:

http://alexander.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=PressReleases.

Most relevant statement is pasted below.

"Nineteen million college students are going to be unhappy when they find out that this latest Washington takeover overcharges them on their student loans to help pay for the new health care law and other government programs. The government will borrow money at 2.8 percent and loan it to students at 6.8 percent, then spend the difference on more government. Any savings should go to the students, not the government.
“And Americans worried about the federal debt will be unhappy to learn that over the next five years, this Washington takeover adds half a trillion dollars to the debt in order to make student loans. Add to this the prospect of students dealing with four federal call centers instead of over 2,000 community and nonprofit lenders to obtain their loans and 31,000 employees kicked out of work who today are helping students apply for loans.
“The Obama Administration's motto is turning out to be: ‘If we can find it in the Yellow Pages, the government ought to try to do it.’”
Link: http://alexander.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=PressReleases&ContentRecord_id=adeeaa06-837e-492f-8b7a-d0bab17c36e6&ContentType_id=778be7e0-0d5a-42b2-9352-09ed63cc4d66&Group_id=80d87631-7c25-4340-a97a-72cccdd8a658&MonthDisplay=3&YearDisplay=2010

Also, this link is to a page that shows video and quotes Alexander’s speech on the Senate floor on March 24th, when he proposed an amendment to the Student Loan measure that would supposedly save students money on interest rates.

http://alexander.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=PressReleases&ContentRecord_id=59183e21-b6c7-4bcb-b1ff-ddf9def92b90&ContentType_id=778be7e0-0d5a-42b2-9352-09ed63cc4d66&Group_id=80d87631-7c25-4340-a97a-72cccdd8a658&MonthDisplay=3&YearDisplay=2010

This link to the same Senate meeting, but has the entire meeting’s transcript.
http://alexander.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=SpeechesFloorStatements&ContentRecord_id=cfcdd61f-8778-4514-9f5a-30be445896ed&ContentType_id=0f618e6d-a789-46d2-99da-676acd97e8f0&ea6aa3c3-418a-4072-b870-8ae1600b8292&Group_id=8f13bc7d-ad88-4fa7-99c2-b86f4b807ce9


Waiting to hear back from the offices of Senators Mitch McConnell (KY), Lindsey Graham (SC), Saxby Chambill (GA), Judd Gregg (NH), Tom Coburn (OK), Scott Brown (MA). Have called each office at least four times and left phone and e-mail contact information.