VOA常速英语2019--新的民主党法案旨在取消大约1.5万亿的学生债务（在线收听）

New Democratic Bill Aims to Cancel Some 1.5 Trillion in Student Debt

American college students can expect to spend years paying off student loans,but a bill introduced by Democratic lawmakers promises to relieve nearly 45 million graduates from a lifetime of debt.“It is simply not acceptable that our younger generation through no fault of their own will have a lower standard of living than their parents.More debt, lower wages and less likelihood of owning their own homes.”Sanders who is running for president teamed up with Democratic representatives Ilhan Omar and Pramila Jayapal to unveil the bill at a news conference Monday.Omar said the student debt crisis affects lower-income families far more than the wealthy. “Canceling student debt is the problem of the poor and the middle class not of the rich, so rather than making exceptions, let’s end this crisis entirely once and for all.” Omar said taxing Wall Street transactions would raise the needed money.“So we can ask speculators on Wall Street to pay small financial transaction tax which would fully fund student loan forgiveness over ten years.The American people bailed out Wall Street. It’s time for Wall Street to bail out the American people.”

美国大学生预计将花费数年时间偿还学生贷款，但民主党议员提出的一项法案承诺将免除近4500万毕业生一生的债务。“我们的年轻一代如果没有过错，他们的生活水平会比他们的父母低，这是不可接受的。负债越多，工资越低，拥有自己房子的可能性越小。”正在竞选总统的Sanders与民主党众议员Ilhan Omar和Pramila Jayapal周一在新闻发布会上共同宣布了这项法案。Omar说，学生债务危机对低收入家庭的影响远大于富人。“取消学生债务是穷人和中产阶级的问题，而不是富人的问题，因此，与其例外，不如让我们彻底结束这场危机。”Omar表示，对华尔街交易征税将筹集所需资金。“因此，我们可以要求华尔街的投机者缴纳小额金融交易税，这将为10年来的学生贷款减免提供全部资金。美国人民拯救了华尔街。现在是华尔街救助美国人民的时候了。”

Student debt has grown by almost two-and-a-half times over the past decade from six hundred billion dollars to 1.6 trillion according to representative Pramila Jayapal.“60 percent of white students across our country have student debt burdens, students of color even more. Eighty-seven percent of black students have to borrow to attend a four-year college and African-American women who graduate with a college degree are paying about a hundred and eleven percent of their first-year salary in student loans.”The new bill builds on legislation introduced in the last Congress, but with Republicans in control of the Senate the propose measure has little chance of becoming law.

据代表Pramila Jayapal称，过去十年中，学生债务增长了近2.5倍，从6000亿美元增至1.6万亿美元。“全国百分之六十的白人学生背负着学生的债务，有色人种的学生甚至更多。百分之八十七的黑人学生必须借钱去读四年制大学，而大学毕业的非洲裔美国女性将支付她们第一年工资的百分之111左右的学生贷款。这项新法案建立在上一届国会通过的立法基础上，但由于共和党控制了参议院，这项提案几乎没有成为法律的机会。