EXCLUSIVE: Michael Carbonara, a Republican running in the Sunshine State as a political disruptor to unseat longtime Democratic incumbent Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, is pitching an idea to reduce the crippling student loan debt crisis facing the country without shifting the burden to taxpayers.
In an interview with Fox News Digital, Carbonara lamented that as America marks its 250th anniversary, “the idea of the American dream has been slipping away” for many young Americans.
He criticized Democrats for promoting affordability while proposing solutions that amount to increased taxes.
“This is the first time where the next generation actually has less opportunity and less freedom than their parents in America’s 250-year history,” he said. “Rather than just tax and tax and tax, which people are tired of, I want to put more money back into the pocket of every American, so life is affordable.”
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Instead of shifting responsibility to taxpayers, Carbonara blames government subsidies as the “root cause” of rising college costs. A fintech mogul and business leader who also hosts a podcast, he said government subsidies allowed schools to raise prices, making college unaffordable.
“There’s no reason that students need to pay $50,000 a year for an education and wind up with a lifetime of debt that they have to chase every year to pay off,” he said, noting, “That’s not what we want. We want people to be able to go to school, get married, have a good-paying job so they can afford to have a family.”
Carbonara said this is one of the top issues voters voice to him on the campaign trail.
“I don’t just hear from young Americans, I hear from everyone,” he explained.
“The average age of first-time home ownership is now over 40 years old, when 20, 30 years ago, it was below 30 years old,” he went on. “Let’s face it, nobody wants to get married to have kids when you live in a 700-square-foot condo in South Florida.”
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However, unlike former President Joe Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan, which would have put taxpayers on the hook, Carbonara said addressing government subsidies would place the responsibility on universities.
“The idea of forgiveness, we have to throw that idea out, there’s no forgiveness here,” he said.
“It’s the university’s responsibility to step up to fix the dilemma. And we need to put together these programs for the universities to be able to fix it because again, they were the ones that received all the funding, all the tuition payments that were guaranteed by the government. So, since they benefited, it’s their responsibility to fix the issues.”
If elected, Carbonara believes he could work on both sides of the aisle to bring a bipartisan solution to the student loan crisis.
“People recognize this is a real crisis,” he said, adding, “This is going to take hard work, and it’s going to require responsibility from both students and, obviously, members of Congress.”
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Ultimately, Carbonara said that with the American dream spiraling out of reach for many, “we’ve come to a crossroads.”
“Do we go to the socialism route… or do we go the route of freedom where we can create opportunity and give people the tools to be self-determined and be able to be prosperous and make their own decisions in life?” he asked.
“That’s the path we need to go to. We need to return to our core values of America that made our country great and give the American freedom and the American dream opportunity back to everyone.”