Today the Senate will vote to keep student loan interest rates from doubling on July 1. Instead of paying for it by closing a corporate tax loophole or ending tax handouts for Fortune 500 oil companies, Republicans are insisting on raiding a prevention health fund.
Working families are struggling, but millionaires and big corporations are doing better than ever.
Yet Washington Republicans would rather force working families to pay more for health care or college than ask Fortune 500 corporations and millionaire tax dodgers already raking in record profits to pitch in.
When the roof's leaking, ordinary families aren't going to borrow $1,000 from the nephew who's working his way through college -- they're going to ask their millionaire uncle to pitch in.
We need leaders who understand that access to college is more than just part of the American Dream -- America's future depends on educating the next generation.
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:
- Student loan debt has already hit $1 trillion -- the last thing struggling students and their families need is $1,000 added to their cost of borrowing for college.
- Since the 1980s, the cost of living has doubled and healthcare costs have tripled but college tuition and fees have increased more than four times -- and shrinking public support for public higher education is a major reason why tuition keeps going up.
- Senate bill that Republicans are opposing would close a loophole that lets wealthy individuals cheat the system by structuring their businesses to avoid payroll taxes.
- According to tax policy experts, closing this corporate tax loophole would actually help most small businesses, which are currently subsidizing the ones abusing it.
- The House bill that the GOP also opposed is paid for by ending taxpayer handouts to big oil and gas companies -- which top the Fortune 500 list of the most profitable corporations and rank among the worst tax cheats in the country.
- Average workers with a four-year college degree earn about $1 million more over their lifetimes and experience half the unemployment rate of those with a high school diploma
