Rangel: ‘There Is No Reason Why a Young Person Should Have to Pay for College’

August 22nd, 2013 4:39 PM

President Obama made some proposals Thursday about how we can reduce college costs around the country.

Speaking about this on MSNBC’s Martin Bashir show hours later, Congressman Charlie Rangel (D-N.Y.) actually said, and I quote, “There is no reason why a young person should have to pay for college.”

JOY-ANN REID, SUBSTITUTE HOST: I first want to get your reaction to the President's education proposal today.

CONGRESSMAN CHARLIE RANGEL, (D-N.Y.): I think it's exciting, and certainly it’s going to bring in accountability. You know, we have universities scattered all over the world. Sometimes you think that tuition means nothing to a large group of people who pay these enormous salaries to college presidents. But if you're talking about production, if you're talking about what is the college really giving someone that doesn't want a worldwide education, they just want to be able to compete, this makes sense.

But you know something, Joy? There is no reason why a young person should have to pay for college education, because who does it benefit except a nation? Who are we competing against? Not ourselves, but China and other industrialized countries, they decide what they need, and they provide the incentives. Here we don't have nurses and doctors, and then when a person gets out of health school, I mean out of medical school, they can’t get the money to pay off their debt. It doesn’t make sense.

So where does Rangel think that money should come from?

Don’t ask.