VOA常速英语2019--民主党欲以“免除学生贷款”为竞选筹码（在线收听）

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.

很多美国大学生要历时数年才能还清学生贷款，但民主党议员引入的一项法案有希望让近4500万名毕业生摆脱需要终生偿还的债务。有一件事是绝对不可接受的，那就是我们年轻的一代并未做错过什么，却要以比父辈还低的水准生活：债务变重了、薪资降低了、拥有自己小窝的可能性降低了。总统候选人桑德斯与民主党众议员伊尔汉·奥马尔、普拉米拉·贾亚帕一起在周一的新闻发布会上宣布了这项法案。奥马尔表示，学生贷款的危机对低收入家庭的影响要大于富裕家庭。取消学生债务是穷人和中产阶级面临的问题，不是富裕家庭面临的问题，所以，我们不要搞什么例外了，不如直接一劳永逸地终结这场危机。奥马尔表示，对华尔街的各项交易征税就能募集到所需的这笔资金了。所以，我们可以让华尔街的投机者们支付小额的金融交易税，这样就能满足10年内学生债务减免所需的资金了。美国人民曾救华尔街于水深火热。现在是时候让华尔街来报恩了。

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.

学生贷款过去1年来上涨了近2.5倍——从6000亿美元上涨到1.6万亿美元，这是众议员普拉米拉·贾亚帕提供的数字。美国有6成白人学生受学生贷款的困扰，而有色人种的学生则更甚。87%的黑人学生不得不通过借贷的方式来支付学费，而许多非裔美籍女学生要把第一年工资的111%用来还贷。这项新法案建立在上次国会引入的一项法律的基础上，但由于共和党在参议院中占多数席位，所以该法案最终进入立法的可能性几乎为零。