Romney-Ryan: Putting More Tax Breaks for Billionaires on the Backs of Students

JANESVILLE, Wis. — At a rally today outside Republican Vice-Presidential nominee Rep. Paul Ryan’s Janesville office, One Wisconsin Now Executive Director Scot Ross denounced the regressive Romney-Ryan budget scheme that cuts federal Pell grants for students attending college, worsening the trillion-dollar student loan debt crisis and hurting economic recovery.

“The Romney-Ryan solution to the trillion dollar student loan debt crisis is to steal more of our young people’s futures,” said Ross. “Romney and Ryan’s scheme is to cut pell grants for 10 million students, while handing billions of dollars to billionaires and millionaires.”

Student loan debt in the U.S. has recently exceeded the one trillion dollar mark, exceeding all forms of consumer debt including credit card debt. In recent testimony before Congress, experts noted that in addition to the financial hardship student loan debt imposes on students and families, the crisis could act as an impediment to a broader economic recovery from the Bush recession.

In response, the so-called Ryan budget would cut funding for federal Pell grants that help ten million Americans pay for college.

Ross concluded, “Romney and Ryan have no shortage of bad ideas to fund their massive tax giveaways to the wealthy and corporations. But digging a deeper hole for college students and their families by adding to the trillion dollar student loan debt crisis is stunning, even for these two.”