Ron Paul Would End Federal Student Loan Program (VIDEO)

WASHINGTON -- Republican presidential contender Ron Paul said Sunday he wants to end federal student loans, calling it a "failed program" that has put students $1 trillion in debt when there are no jobs and when the quality of education has deteriorated.

Paul unveiled a plan last week to cut $1 trillion from the federal budget that would eliminate five Cabinet departments, including education. He's also wants young workers to be able to opt out of Social Security.

The student loan program is not part of those cuts, but Paul said Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press" that he'd kill the loan program eventually if he were president. That could put him at odds with some of his young followers, many of whom are college students.

Paul blamed government intervention in the economy for rising tuition.

"Just think of all this willingness to want to help every student get a college education," said Paul, who graduated from Gettysburg College in Pennsylvania before earning a medical degree at the Duke University School of Medicine. "I went to school when we had none of those. I could work my way through college and medical school because it wasn't so expensive."

Annual tuition for Gettysburg College is $42,610 for the 2011-2012 academic year. Annual tuition at Duke's medical school runs $46,621, according to its web site.

Amid such rising costs, borrowing for college is at record levels. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York says students and parents took out a record $100 billion last year, and owe more on student loans – more than $1 trillion is outstanding – than credit cards.

For more on Paul's budget plan, watch the video below.

Comments

[Helioscopeprime]

09:48 AM on 11/13/2011

He is right on the basic point. Tuition would fall even though demand would remain flat as borrowing costs would rise and credit standards would tighten without glvt subsidies. But instead of cutting spending, I am in favor of transitioning the loan guarantees to scholarships for targeted majors and high performers to increase competitiveness.

[Activist Annie]

06:07 PM on 10/30/2011

How easy it is for some people to forget that they stand on the shoulders of those who came before, that they didn't just fly from somewhere and land into their present position, whatever it is.

[Peter Eich]

10:00 AM on 10/29/2011

Ron Paul said: "people want to assume responsiblity for themselves". I could not agree more (on almost everything)...

[kimhoulian]

05:24 PM on 10/30/2011

When a person obtains a loan they are assuming responsibility. These people aren't asking for a freebie they must pay the loan back with interest. This is a choice for that individual and if we want people to contribute to society wouldn't it be in our best interest for people to be educated. Guns can't possibly solve all your problems and neither will returning to the article of confederation under 50 states

[kimhoulian]

09:34 PM on 10/26/2011

So my last question ..if we return to Ron Paul strict constitutional view..which basically mean the constitution provided protection initially to land owning white men, excluding blacks and female, which I am both. ANd it took many numerous amendment before I was included therefore I ask what version of the Constitution is being advocated under Ron Paul and his supporters or is this let's go by the constitution code for white only

[Lavalampan91]

07:02 AM on 10/27/2011

The constitution in it's current form of course.

[kimhoulian]

03:02 PM on 10/27/2011

then in it's current form the congress had a right in 1913 to impose an income tax

[Austin Ray Walter]

04:06 PM on 10/30/2011

It doesn't mean were gonna go back to being racist...are u kidding me?

[kimhoulian]

04:45 PM on 10/30/2011

aren't we already there..Austin

[kimhoulian]

09:16 PM on 10/26/2011

Under this strict constitutional view do Ron Paul believe every person in the US was covered as beneficiary in this document or does he not expect to answer these questions

[Alakazam7]

05:04 PM on 10/26/2011

I think that Ron Paul's job should be eliminated, so that taxpayers could save his salary and benefits. After all, he's been drinking from the public trough for a very long time. If all federal loans for education are eliminated, only the very wealthy will be able to afford college for their kids. His policies would turn this country into a population of ignorant knuckle draggers circling the drain, and unable to compete, invent, prosper or dig ourselves out of the financial hole we are in. If he's "made" it economically, why won't he pay his fair share of taxes, from that lofty altitude? He's climbed to the top and isn't he pulling up the ladder, so that no one else can follow?

[Austin Ray Walter]

06:48 PM on 10/26/2011

I have no idea where you're getting your facts from, but i must laugh at you.

[Okiemama]

10:57 PM on 10/26/2011

He was presenting facts. Paul has been on the government payroll for a long time. You can laugh at him but you present no "facts" to dispute anything he said. And you Paul supporters are the ones worthy of laughter. Your guy is polling a 9% among Republicans and he is described as too "nutty" to be elected by those whose support he would need to get the nomination. Also, what is this about Mr. Fiscal Conservative spending ONE MILLION on charter planes?

[Okiemama]

05:17 PM on 10/30/2011

I am a big government loon because I know Paul is a hypocrite? Great reasoning there Austin. At least the government does not pay my salary and provide me with health insurance. Why do I have the funny feeling that you work for the government? And calling someone a "loon" is not sound rebuttal containing facts.

[sidnee]

02:45 PM on 10/30/2011

Ron Paul won' t be elected anyways, so we don't have to worry about it.

[election2012]

04:43 PM on 10/26/2011

Obama Administration to Lower Student Loan Payments for Millions of Borrowers

"The new “Pay As You Earn” proposal will allow about 1.6 million students the ability to cap their loan payments at 10 percent starting next year, and the plan will forgive the balance of their debt after 20 years of payments. Additionally, starting this January an estimated 6 million students and recent college graduates will be able to consolidate their loans and reduce their interest rates."

http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2011/10/25/we-cant-wait-obama-administration-lower-student-loan-payments-millions-b?utm_source=wethepeople&utm_medium=response&utm_campaign=studentloan

[Wild Turkey]

01:06 PM on 10/26/2011

Ron Paul is anti-war and anti-Federal Reserve. Yes, good, fine. BUT, he is also against civil-rights legislation, the Federal income tax, Social security, etc. etc.

His political views have some merit but they are absolutist and completely fantastical.

[Austin Ray Walter]

01:25 PM on 10/26/2011

Just because he's against Civil-Rights legislation, doesn't mean that's a bad thing. He nor the constitution support legislation that promote collectivism.

Federal Income Tax is what gives the Federal Government so much reckless income, and illegal according to the Founding Father's.

Social Security has to long a list of negatives for me to speak of.

Fanatical? I consider all the changes we've made to our society, to be the real fanatical political views.

[Wild Turkey]

01:55 PM on 10/26/2011

Well, that's just like, your opinion, man.

Come on, you really think Obama is more radical than Ron Paul?

Also, I wrote "fantastical", not "fanatical".

[kimhoulian]

09:00 PM on 10/26/2011

So are you admitting that only through civil rights and the amendments to the constitution are others outside your culture the ones without rights... and those civil rights and amendments that were born after are consider forced collectivism

[miket23]

08:16 PM on 10/26/2011

"against civil-rights legislation"
Not true. He was only against 1 title in the Civil Rights Act of '64 that had to do with federal overreach into private propery owner's rights. He adamantly supported all other titles that had to do with the repeal of the Jim Crow laws and institutionalized discrimination.

"against the Federal income tax"
This is slavery to the state, any way you look at it. The federal income tax presumes that the government owns 100% of your labor only allowing you to keep a certain percentage and reserving the right to increase it at any time. It only accounts for about 1/2 of all US Treasury revenue. If we went back to spending levels from about 15 years ago, we would nearly have enough non-federal income tax revenue to pay for government. So, if we generated enough revenue from other sources to pay for government, you'd still want the federal income tax? Please do explain.

"against social security"
He's the only one in DC who actually introduced legislation to SAVE SS by making it illegal to spend money from the SS trust fund to pay for other govt expenditures. However, he does offer younger people the opportunity to opt out. Are you suggesting that I shouldn't have the right to opt out of a government run retirement program if I chose to pay for my own retirement? What's wrong with more choice? And how is that in any way "absolutist" or "fanatical"?

[Okiemama]

11:02 PM on 10/26/2011

If younger people "opt out" where will the money come from to support their parents and grandparents? We need JOBS to get more people paying into the system not the destruction of it. And you better save for your retirement anyway if you want more than a minimal existance because that is all SS will give you. But, it beats starving for those whose lifetime income was too low to save.

[Okiemama]

05:18 PM on 10/26/2011

Plastic surgery is being provided by Wal-Mart?? Many other factors involved the least of which is the lack of government involvement. Like sheer volume.

[nexmike]

02:39 PM on 10/28/2011

Contact lenses are provided by Wal-mart.

[kimhoulian]

11:03 AM on 10/26/2011

What Ron Paul and his supporter fail to understand is people have a choice to seek these loans and eliminating them so the government can take the backdoor entrance into price control of tuition doesn't seem to correlate with allowing the free market to work as Ron Paul often preach. Micromanaging people lives in the sense that if government eliminate people's choice to federally back student loans then they want go into debt for an education, especially if they can't find a job doesn't look like a free society but more like a controlled society.

[MarketAnarchist101]

08:30 PM on 10/26/2011

"What Ron Paul and his supporter fail to understand is people have a choice to seek these loans and eliminatin­g them so the government can take the backdoor entrance into price control of tuition doesn't seem to correlate with allowing the free market to work as Ron Paul often preach."

The government shouldn't have provided them in the first place.. so the choice that your education will be subsidized by the rest of the people shouldn't have been on the table in the first place. How is the government going to take the backdoor entrance to price control of tuition.. the government has been using this backdoor to drive the prices up.. it's not a back door thing to control it outright.. The free market approach has government out of the question entirely.
"Micromanag­ing... society."
I love the Orwellian twist that you have put here.. it's the government being involved in people's choices and making the loans more attractive that micromanages people's lives and puts them in debt for years (as you cannot declare that you are bankrupt to get rid of your college debt.) Also, when the government passes laws that limits the market in the first place it inherently is not a free society.. besides we're in a controlled society.. controlled by the government.

[kimhoulian]

08:46 PM on 10/26/2011

wow MarketAnarchrist...orwellian that rich coming from you...but I'll take it because unpleasant facts are sometime hard to swallow especially when the person who is swallowing is advocating a dismantling of a system so a past more stricter system could be put in its place, via force if necessary. However, let go back to the views of being a strict constitutionalist to the point where Ron Paul has standing over the very people who wrote the constitution as an evolving document. If the founding father constructed a sound document that Ron Paul and his supporters believe in then why do you not recognize that the document was only a starting point rather than a finish complete mandate

[Helioscopeprime]

08:54 AM on 11/13/2011

Really hard to reply to a post that makes no sense, but will try. Free market supporters do not believe in government intervention into the market (ie, free specifically means free from government influence). People can agree or disagree with that position, but framing federal student loans as an enabler of free markets is wrong on its face.

[Austin Ray Walter]

04:04 AM on 10/26/2011

So. Here's a question.

What qualifies Obama to be President instead of Ron Paul?

[MarketAnarchist101]

04:16 AM on 10/26/2011

Knee jerk liberal response will be..

Because he's already president.

[kimhoulian]

10:51 AM on 10/26/2011

how about the knee jerk reaction being the constitution is what gives the qualification for being president and thus far Obama nor Ron Paul is unqualified under it...for some reason that part that states the qualification for president seem to be ignored when someone is trying to disqualify President Obama. People vote on ideas they share with a candidate and many people, in fact over 50 million in 2008 shared then candidate Obama ideas

[madisonhack]

07:08 AM on 10/26/2011

Ron Paul is qualified.....he just isn't going to be elected. That has to happen first, as in the President's case.

[MarketAnarchist101]

08:08 AM on 10/26/2011

We'll see what happens with the Nominations coming up in a few months.

[Dunkleberger Karl]

02:12 AM on 11/21/2011

Madison hack: we are talking about being qualified to be POTUS , not for Being a congressman from texas that everyone in his party stayed away from till 2009!

[Amin Khad]

01:59 AM on 10/26/2011

Federal guarantees of student loans have created a dysfunctional private sector in education, have pushed up tuition costs, and have created a glut of university graduates lacking the skills to get jobs.

[Dunkleberger Karl]

02:14 AM on 11/21/2011

EDUCATION IS A FUNTION OF GOVERMENT! OTHERWISE YOU WILL SPELL FINE AND HAVE NO IMAGINATION < IDEA"S< OR THE ABBILITY TO LOVE SOMEONE NOT RELATED TO YOU< OR ONLY VISITABLE ON THE INTERNET!

[tokyomk]

09:42 PM on 10/25/2011

Although I support Ron Paul's opposition to many of the entitlement programs, I would not agree with him on this one. The GSL program helped me immensely, and all of my loans were repaid with interest.

[Austin Ray Walter]

11:49 PM on 10/25/2011

I support him fully. Even though I got a Federal Student Loan. I hope he does this, for future generations need a better chance to succeed.

[MarkAntney]

08:01 AM on 10/26/2011

By dramatially reducing the availability of a primary means of getting a higher education in terms of securing finances; will accomplish your stated goal "future generation­s need a better chance to succeed." how?

YOu both just stated/admitted you utilized the very program he wants to abolish, to get your education.

Of Conservatives, he's about the only genuine one left and will defend his views and more than a few I actually think has merits and/or I agree but not this one.

This program is quite similar to benefits we provide our veterans, except this is a Loan and has to be paid back.

We have programs for our vets where that's not the case (funds being repayed), are we to eliminate those also?

[Dunkleberger Karl]

02:15 AM on 11/21/2011

Drink More , Youare almost a full time Fox News watcher! Yeeah!

[kimhoulian]

06:14 PM on 10/25/2011

What Is Ron Paul connection to the Oath Keepers created by a former staffer by the name of Stewart Rhodes?

[acatsblack]

06:30 PM on 10/25/2011

What's wrong with Oath Keepers?

[kimhoulian]

06:47 PM on 10/25/2011

Thats for the people of America to decide after they research as much as possible =, however, the question is what is Ron Paul connection and does he participate in meeting and endorse the doctrine that the oath keeper subscribe to. As with any candidate I believe Ron Paul should be vetted so the american people can understand what Ron Paul is really advocating for this country and what his supporters are advocating

[kimhoulian]

08:03 PM on 10/26/2011

Hey cats calm down..LOL. I ask a question and for some reason it took a long while before it was answered but hey there are other thread today about Ron Paul that I am currently spreading what you call fear and what I call legitimate questions about a presidential candidate... and by the way I'm more than prior military I am Retired Military..so at ease with the attitude and try being more pleasant if you want to converse with me.

[drini]

10:15 PM on 10/25/2011

Saw the one in Tennessee today who came to the courthouse with his 45 mm and AK47........he looked like something out of Ice Road Truckers or Sons of Anarchy.

[kimhoulian]

10:35 PM on 10/25/2011

Just finished reading about that....I'm still waiting for people like Ron Paul and his supporters who claim to be strict constitutionalist explain the rights and roles of other cultures in regards to the constitution. Ron Paul has defended the Oath keepers before so maybe he will be willing to explain their relationship

[mikeykeat]

04:58 PM on 10/25/2011

I wish I could not be capable of uttering these words....But after today watching the Egyptian Hero Asmaa Mahfouz on Democracy Now at

http://www.democracynow.org/2011/10/25/from_tahrir_to_wall_street_egyptian

Paul is right. The nation and both parties have become bought and paid for corrupt agents of the "Banks" and Megacorporations....The Bank like Wells Fargo who my son will owe $150K to for a college education in a Nation that cares nothing about REAL domestic Jobs....All of Obama's programs are just window dressing. There has not been one INVESTIGATION aside indictment to the Fraud perpetuated on the World.

Listen fully and completely to this brave girl in the link above...Listen to her interview on Wall Street yesterday with her speaking in English......Listen to her words and wisdom and let them sink in...Especially her message to Obama...The power belongs to the people.....I never thought I could say this; but Obama too is in the pocket of Goldman Sachs and Wall Street.

[Austin Ray Walter]

05:56 PM on 10/25/2011

It's true, us Ron Paul supporters aren't any cult. We see it and we understand! We all benefit by voting Ron Paul! Far greater than Student Loans or other trivial things! We're literally being taken over by dictators!

Wake up!

[Dunkleberger Karl]

02:19 AM on 11/21/2011

Dictators? really? If Mr Obama was a dictator, he would have shot down at least 400 tea party peaple( back when they called themselves "TEA-B_GGER_"!And arrested 4000 of them! Oh wait there never was a 4000 tea-B_GGER_ protest! Just senior citizens who got on a bus, for a free lunch a free dinner and if they brought a freind a free breakfaste @ "RYANS"< or "Old country Buffet"