Dick Durbin and this Bill to Refinance

Senate Once Again Blocks Bill To Allow Borrowers To Refinance Federal And Private Student Loans

September 17, 2014

I posted something like this earlier.School loans are  Government funded. His bill wants to have a tax or surcharge on the wealthy. Teh Wealthy or well off people are not responsible for a strangers kid that according to Durbin is Drowning in student loans! Who Cares, its not anyone elses fault that these kids going to college that were "blind" or stupid when they  signed the loan papers. They ar responsible, not anyone else! This looks like Socialism, and from our Dick Durbin!  Just think this clown wants re elected to keep carrying on the legacy of Obama...........SOCIALISM ! Also the Liberals are the one's encouraging the kids to go to College!

Durbin's legislation would allow many student borrowers to lower interest rates

Mabinty Tarawallie has lived an immigrant's dream — at a high cost.

A native of Sierra Leone, she moved to the United States with her family at age 11. They were a poor family, but her parents impressed on her the value of education.

Despite struggling in school — she didn't know how to read or speak English when she arrived — she graduated from high school, attended Parkland College and completed her undergraduate degree in sociology at the University of Illinois. Two weeks ago, she earned a master's degree in social work from the UI.

"I seized the opportunity my parents gave me," said Tarawallie, 29.

But she and her husband, a UI graduate student in education, also wound up with a crippling $150,000 in student loans.

It's a challenge faced by thousands of students across the United States, said U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Illinois.

Joined by Tarawallie and UI junior Liv Harmening, Durbin held a news conference at the Illini Union on Wednesday to push a bill that would allow student borrowers to refinance their loans at lower interest rates.

Many student loans carry interest rates of 6.8 percent or higher. But legislation approved last summer lowered the rate to 3.86 for undergraduates who borrow through the federal Direct Student Loan program.

The Bank on Students Emergency Loan Refinancing Act — which Durbin co-sponsored with Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass. — would allow students with older, higher-interest loans to refinance at lower rates.

It would apply to people who borrowed through the Federal Family Education Loan program and the Ford Federal Direct Loan program, as well as those who took out private loans, which often have variable interest rates, hefty origination fees and few consumer protections, Durbin said.

The new rates would be 3.86 percent for undergraduates with direct loans, 5.41 percent for graduate loans and 6.41 percent for PLUS loans taken out by parents. Borrowers would have to establish eligibility; the program would not be open to those who have already defaulted.

Durbin said it would help some students finally pay down the principal rather than just make interest payments.

He said student debt in the United States has reached a "breaking point," totaling $1.2 trillion, more than credit-card debt and second only to mortgage debt. About 44 million Americans are paying off student loans, including 1.7 million in Illinois, he said. On average, Illinois graduates in 2012 left with $28,000 in debt.

"If we are going to give the students of working families a fair shot at affordable higher education, we have got to come up with a way for those families and their students to borrow the money necessary to get through school," he said.

Because interest rates are low, the government is essentially making money off those student loans, Durbin said. The refinancing bill would be paid for by imposing the "Buffett rule," as Durbin put it. Investor Warren Buffett has proposed a minimum "millionaire tax" on wealthy Americans who pay a lower effective tax rate than Americans with modest earnings, he said.

http://www.news-gazette.com/news/local/2014-05-28/bill-aims-ease-student-loan-burden.html