Ron Paul on His Student Loan Plan
Writes Ron Paul in an op-ed at USA Today:
My “Restore America” budget plan would eliminate five federal departments, including the Department of Education. But the aspect of that department that deals with student loans isn’t eliminated — it’s simply handled elsewhere in the budget. Yet the many headlines that came out after my interview Sunday on Meet the Press exclaimed that I wanted to “end” or “phase out” all student loans…
When host David Gregory asked me whether or not we should abolish federal aid for education, I replied: “Eventually, but my program doesn’t do it; there’s a transition in this.” To read many of the headlines this week concerning my budget plan and student loans, you would think there was no transition…
Like housing and medicine, education costs went through the roof when government became involved. In the last three decades, the overall inflation rate has increased more than 100%… But compare this inflation to the rise in the cost of college tuition, which has increased almost 500% in the same amount of time.
This is what happens when we print money out of thin air and couple it with government intervention in education.
When I went to school, we didn’t have a federal student loan program, and I was able to work my way through college and medical school because it wasn’t so expensive. What has changed? In the name of “helping” students through federal loans, the government has really hurt them in the long run by drastically driving up the overall cost of education and forcing poor and middle class Americans, who are just trying to better their lives, to take on unreasonable debt.
And look what that has given us. Our young people are jobless and saddled with student debt greater than all of the credit card debt of every American combined!
My budget plan cuts $1 trillion of excessive spending in year one. This is a first major step in getting big government off our backs and allowing the free market to work.
In my budget, Social Security, Medicare, — and yes, student loans — are not cut in any way for those currently receiving such services or for those who will be in the near future. Our economy is not healthy enough, nor are most Americans in a financial position at the moment, for any of these programs to be significantly altered now. But perhaps after balancing our budget during my presidency, reining in the government and easing the regulatory burden placed on the taxpayers — which will result in a more robust economy and new jobs — the price of education and other services will decline because of more free market competition and less government interference. Then, and only then, will we be able to address whether some of these programs are the best way to care for people.
I want to help our students, but I believe we will assist them the most by eventually transitioning student aid away from the inefficient and ineffective federal government and back to local governments and private market-based solutions — which simply work better.
Getting the federal government out of the way will give us better educational opportunities at a better price.
But constantly frightening Americans anytime someone dares to offer serious solutions is the easiest way to make sure there is never any transition, never any real reform, and never any recovery.
