Gary Johnson Will Consider Lowering Student Loan Interest Rates if Elected President

ashley.rae | June 6, 2016
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In an interview with Politico’s Glenn Thrush, Libertarian Party nominee Gary Johnson veered from traditional libertarian ideology and said he would consider lowering interest rates on student loans if elected president.

While trying make the case that he’s the “guy” for Sen. Bernie Sanders’ supporters, Johnson was asked about his beliefs on student loans compared to Sanders’ position in favor of “student loan amnesty.”

Instead of citing the prevailing libertarian theory that the government is responsible for the student loan crisis by offering loans with artificially low interest rates, Johnson began his answer by saying he would consider making interest rates on student loans even lower as president:

Well, what he's [Sanders’] right about is that students have been sold a bill of goods, so as president of the United States, at the end of the day, I get to either sign or veto legislation that Congress sends me, I would really take a hard look at how students might, I don't know, receive some sort of benefit or reduced interest rate. I mean, if we can--if the Federal Reserve can bail out all the big banks, it seems to me that we might arrange lower interest rates for these loans to get paid back.

Johnson then said government guaranteed student loans are responsible for high college tuition:

But students have been sold a bill of goods, and the bill of goods is that, you know, there's no excuse for you not to go to college because of guaranteed government student loans, and because of that, in my opinion, college tuition costs twice as much as it would have cost if there would have been no government guaranteed student loans.

Johnson has been trying to appeal to Sanders supporters since winning the nomination. He said he has “73 percent” of his ideology in common with Sanders.

Johnson, however, has always maintained he disagrees with Sanders when it comes to economics.

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