Republicans Block Student-Loan Relief

A bill to lower interest rates on student loans wasn’t even considered by the Senate after Republicans blocked the measure from getting a vote Wednesday. The legislation authored by Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) would have allowed 40 million people to refinance student loans at a lower interest rate. Republicans prevented the measure from moving forward because the bill would have levied a 30 percent minimum tax on people earning more than $1 million per year. “Today is a really good day for billionaires,” Warren said. “For the 40 million people dealing with student loan debt, it wasn’t such a good day.” Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN) shot back, saying “college graduates don’t need a dollar a day tax subsidy to pay off their loan.”