Senator Elizabeth Warren (D. MA) is on a mission to make Republicans pay at the polls this year for voting against student loan reform bill. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R. KY) is already on her list and now you can add Rep. Shelley Moore Capito (R. WV) to that list:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) will campaign for current West Virginia Secretary of State and U.S. Senate candidate Natalie Tennant (D) in July.
Warren, who's been a proponent of student loan reform, will travel with Tennant on July 14 in the state's Eastern Panhandle as she presents her new education plan.
Tennant tweeted the news on Monday:
- Huffington Post, 6/23/14
And the DSCC have been hitting Capito on this issue:
http://wvmetronews.com/...
On Thursday’s MetroNews “Talkline,” Second District Congresswoman Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), a U.S. Senate candidate, said student loan debt was “obviously a problem.” She said she has voted at least twice in the past for relief bills.
“I have a very solid record on trying to help students figure out how to pay. We don’t want to have any (financial) barriers for anybody who wants to go to school,” Capito said.
Those with the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, though, questioned Capito’s stand.
“Rep. Shelley Moore Capito’s reckless allegiance to Washington special interests comes with a high price tag for West Virginia college students and families who are struggling to pay off student loan debt,” said Justin Barasky, spokesperson for the DSCC.
Earlier this week, President Barack Obama rolled out new executive actions designed to make it easier for graduates to pay off their student loans.
“I, personally, don’t like the way the President is coming in on all these different areas and just issuing edicts before they go through the representational process,” Capito said of those executive actions.
As part of them, the U.S. Secretary of Education is being directed to develop regulations to let some five million student loan borrowers cap their student loan payments at ten percent of their incomes. That cap could be an option for borrowers who took out loans before 2007 by December of next year.
Most student with loans today can already cap their loan payments at 10 percent of their incomes.
According to the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy, the average debt of a graduate from a four-year public college in West Virginia is now at more than $25,000. The New York Federal Reserve Bank has said West Virginia has the highest student loan delinquency rate in the nation at roughly 18 percent. The national average is 11 percent. - Metro News, 6/12/14
And Capito has been getting hit on this:
http://washingtonexaminer.com/...
Rep. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., voted to reauthorize the Export-Import Bank in 2012. She sits on the House Financial Services Committee, where the bill's fate may be sealed. And she's running for Senate.
Capito's libertarian opponent John Buckley is making crony capitalism a theme of his critiques of the front runner, and today he introduced Ex-Im into the debate:
The Ex-Im Bank is a paragon of corporate welfare and a slush fund for big business. ... There’s no justification for further assaulting their wallets for a loan program subsidizing international corporations. ...
Capito should reverse course, stand up to her big business backers, and let businesses compete without government subsidy. - Washington Examiner, 6/20/14
Meanwhile, Tennant has been out discussing her economic plan on the campaign trail:
http://www.charlestondailymail.com/...
U.S. Senate candidate Natalie Tennant has announced a second policy agenda, this one focused on job creation.
Earlier this month, Tennant unveiled an agenda that would bolster West Virginia’s energy industries, including coal, natural gas and wind and solar. As with that announcement, Tennant will travel the state this week to talk with business owners about obstacles they face in growing their businesses. Her tour began Monday afternoon in Morgantown with a visit to SustainU, a local clothing company, and an event with AFL-CIO. Tennant voiced support for the Creating American Jobs and Ending Offshoring Act and the Bring Jobs Home Act, which aims to provide tax cuts to companies that bring jobs back to the United States and end tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas, according to information from her campaign.
“It’s time to stop rewarding companies that ship jobs overseas and instead invest in small businesses who create jobs here in West Virginia,” Tennant said. “Yes, I will support coal and energy jobs, and while I’m fighting for the jobs we have I will also work to make West Virginia more competitive for the jobs of the future. With our skilled work force and high-tech facilities, there is no reason West Virginia can’t have it all.” - Charleston Daily Mail, 6/16/14
You can read more about Tennant's plan here:
http://natalietennant.com/...
I'm happy to see Warren hit the campaign trail and that Democrats haven't given up on this seat. It will be a tough race but we can't give up on it. Click here if you would like to donate and get involved with Tennant's campaign:
http://natalietennant.com/