Sen. Bob Menendez: Don’t let GOP take away the student loan interest deduction
Neil W. McCabe
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Flanked by his political allies, including Sen. Cory Booker (D.-N.J.), Garden State Democrat Sen. Robert Menendez spoke out Nov. 3 against the plan by House Republicans to eliminate the tax deduction for interest paid on student loans as part of its tax reform package.
“As a member of the Senate Finance Committee, the Republican tax plan does not solve the problems that working families face in this economy,” said Menendez, who is still on trial in a New Jersey federal courtroom on corruption charges.
The senator said that the GOP’s plan to wipe out the income tax deduction for interest paid on student loans bothered him a great deal.
“We should be finding ways to help young people–our sons and daughters–be able to to get the type of college education they need to compete in this global economy–not make it harder,” he said.
Mendendez said his own college education was supported by both Pell Grants and student loans.
If he could have deducted the interest on the debt as h was finally getting into a professional part of my life, it would have made facing those challenges easier, he said.
The current tax code allows individuals earning less than $80,000 and couples earning less than $165,000 to deduct up to $2,500 of the interest they pay on student loans.
Watch all of the remarks by Sen. Robert Menendez (D.-N.J.) here:
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