Porker of the Month
Posted by Dobrien 9 years, 11 months ago to Government
Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) has named Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) Porker of the Month for playing a leading role in the effort to create “debt-free college” for all students, which would in fact dramatically worsen the student loan crisis. Student loan debt hit an all-time high of $1.26 trillion earlier this year. The average new college graduate now owes more than $37,000 – more than double the amount owed in the early 1990s. Over the past three decades, tuition costs have increased 153 percent for private colleges and 231 percent for public colleges, faster than the costs of food and healthcare. The cause of this dramatic increase is simple: increased federal subsidies. Over the past decade, there has been a 69 percent increase in students’ borrowing from federal loan programs. This increase in student access to credit has enabled colleges to continue to hike prices, requiring even more borrowing. Sen. Schumer proposes to make the problem even worse with S. 2677, the In the Red Act, which would increase federal subsidies, increase student loan borrowing, and saddle future generations with even more debt. For his lack of understanding of the student loan bubble and his efforts to inflate it even further, Sen. Schumer is the August Porker of the Month.