Dem Rep Clyburn: ‘There’s Not Going To Be Any Free Education’ In My Lifetime

Friday on MSNBC  after endorsing Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-SC) said Clinton’s opponent Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-VT) plan for free college is not going to happen in his lifetime.

Clyburn said, “Well, let me put it this way. I do not believe there are any free lunches. and certainly there’s not going to be any free education. I have made the White House aware of my disenchantment with the proposal they came out with because I do believe we ought to make education affordable. But I think for you to believe that they’re going to make education free, I don’t think that’s going to happen, not in my lifetime, and not in my children’s lifetime.”

Host Tamron Hall said, “Bernie Sanders believes he has a plan, he would say not to make education free, but tuition free. When you see judge people who say, I’m in debt before I even pick up a diploma, and at least there’s an idea, they believe, coming from Bernie Sanders, he believes he can implement, are you saying listen, that’s not happening?”

He continued, “Let me remind you, and Bernie worked on this with me, when we passed the Affordable Care Act, we passed along with it a big education act as well. And in that education, we took $40 billion away from the middle man and pumped it into student aid. and we reduced the interest on loans down to 3%. The fact of the matter is we made education affordable. Now, that’s expired. The Recovery Act is no longer in place. Therefore, that went away. That is the kind of thing we ought to bring back. We ought to reduce the interest on student loans. But I don’t believe for one moment that we’re going to jeopardize the existence of the Historical Black Colleges and Universities. there are 103 of them in this country, and they’re not, a few of them are public institutions, but most of them are not. They are church schools and they are other private schools. Why would their students, they would be able to keep their students if they could go across town for free? So we have to look at where the sweet spot is. I would say that anybody, be careful what you pray for.”

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