Several weeks after the U.S. House of Representatives passed a spending reduction package that included $14.3 billion in cuts to federal financial aid, Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore, visited campus Thursday to voice his opposition to the spending cuts.
At a forum hosted by the ASUO in the Lillis Business Complex, DeFazio listened to students talk about how further financial aid cuts would impact their lives and said that Republicans in Congress have their priorities wrong.
The House passed a bill on Nov. 18 that cut about $50 billion from the budget; the largest cuts were directed at Medicaid benefits, food stamps and student loan subsidies.
The cuts to student loan subsidies would raise the interest for students borrowing money to pay for college, DeFazio said.
University student Tony McCown told DeFazio that debt from student loans could have a crippling impact on his career.
McCown, who is married and has a four-month old son, said that after he and his wife transferred to the University from Lane Community College, they had accumulated about $40,000 of debt between them.
After they graduate from the University, the McCowns expect to have more than $100,000 of combined debt.
McCown said that he would like to attend law school and work in public interest law, but he’s afraid he will have to find higher-paying work to pay off his debts.
McCown said the budget cuts, known as the budget reconciliation bill, would exacerbate his situation.
“This reconciliation bill creates a working-poor class,” he said.
DeFazio also heard from Cassandra Day, campus outreach director for the ASUO.
Day told of how she works three jobs outside of the ASUO, but even with the extra income she is still borrowing money to pay for school.
“This is scary how much more debt they’re expecting me to accumulate just to get a bachelor’s degree,” she said.
DeFazio said he appreciated hearing the personal stories of students. He will attend a similar forum at Oregon State University this week.
“It’s depressing, but it will arm me with some good anecdotes, some good facts and a new determination to fight these cuts,” he said.
The budget cuts were passed as an attempt to decrease the federal budget deficit. Reducing the size of the budget became a greater political priority after the large costs of Hurricane Katrina became known, DeFazio said.
“The sooner this gets to the president’s desk, the sooner taxpayers can know that the size of government has begun to be put under control,” said Grover Norquist, president of the conservative group Americans for Tax Reform, in a news release following the passage of the House bill.
DeFazio said he would prefer to reduce the budget deficit through a combination of raising taxes and cutting certain large spending programs, such as expanded space travel and research for a Star Wars-style defense system.
DeFazio noted that next week the House of Representatives will vote on a $70 billion dollar tax cut proposal.
“We are in serious financial trouble,” he said. “I don’t want to minimize that, but you can’t keep cutting your income.”
DeFazio encouraged students to continue to lobby Oregon’s congressional delegation to prevent the cuts to financial aid from becoming law.
DeFazio said in an interview with the Emerald that he hopes to see Democrats make college affordability a key element of the party’s platform heading into the 2006 midterm elections.
“I think that we can afford to live in an America where people can get an education according to their ability to get admitted and learn, not their ability to earn and pay,” he said. “I would love to set that as a goal and move in that direction.”
DeFazio has not yet announced whether he intends to seek re-election in 2006 but added that he usually makes an announcement around mid-February.
He said that he does not plan on challenging incumbent Gov. Ted Kulongoski for the Democratic nomination for Governor in 2006.
“I’ve had a lot of people badger me about running for governor, but I’ve said clearly I don’t intend to run against the incumbent governor,” DeFazio said. “If he’s running, I’m not.”
