PBS高端访谈:共和党税务改革有可能会影响到学生贷款

Judy Woodruff: We return now to the Republican efforts to overhaul¹ the tax code. Both the Senate and House tax bills are large and complex pieces of legislation, and they could affect key sectors² of the American economy and society that have not gotten as much attention. One of those is the potential impact on higher education, and that's the focus of our weekly Making the Grade segment. John Yang has the story.

John Yang: Judy, the Senate and House tax bills could make higher education more expensive for some students, though in different ways. The biggest changes are in the House bill, which would end the deduction³ for interest paid on student loans. Some 12 million people used that deduction in 2015, the last year reported by the IRS. Danielle Douglas-Gabriel covers the economics of education for The Washington Post, and she joins us now from Hartford, Connecticut. Danielle, thanks for joining us. Now, the House bill does away with the deductibility of student loan interest. How does that work under current law?

Danielle Douglas-gabriel: So, people who are paying down their student loans can deduct⁴ up to $2,500 worth of interest every year. So folks who have higher balances tend to benefit the most from this. On average, people get about maybe $200 worth of a deduction from this particular credit, but it is fairly popular. About three in 10 of the 44 million Americans who have student loan debt take advantage of this particular benefit.

John Yang: So a lot of people use it, though it sounds like the benefit is relatively⁵ small.

Danielle Douglas-gabriel: Fairly. Still, for folks who are paying down their loans while paying for a house and taking care of their family, a lot of them say that every little bit helps. So they were pretty disappointed to see the House want the take aim at this. And I think those voices must have been heard in the Senate, which decided⁶ not to take aim at this particular tax benefit.

John Yang: But it will be on the table when they try to reconcile the two bills?

Danielle Douglas-gabriel: Yes.

John Yang: And then taxing tuition waivers as income. Tuition waivers, different from scholarships, right?

Danielle Douglas-gabriel: Yes. So, tuition waivers are what universities tend to offer their teaching and research assistants in exchange for the work that they do. In addition to offering these students stipends⁷ to cover the cost of living and such, they also cover their tuition. Now, what this would mean is someone who is attending a program that costs, say, $30,000, $40,000 in tuition would -- and are also being paid maybe, let's say, $20,000 of a stipend⁸ a year, would instead of being taxed on that $20,000 stipend, would now be taxed on the full $50,000 to $60,000 of tuition waiver, as well as that stipend. So that could be a pretty substantial difference for a lot of graduate students that are barely getting by on the money that they're earning so far. So very many of them are concerned and a lot of them started to mobilize and take their concerns to Capitol Hill, and I think that's another reason why we saw the waiver not make it into the Senate plan.

John Yang: And then one thing that is in both bills is taxing some universities' endowments.

Danielle Douglas-gabriel: Correct. So, there is a proposal right now that would impose a 1.4 percent excise⁹ tax on the net investment income of universities, private universities, that is, whose students -- whose endowments are equal to about $250,000 per full-time¹⁰ student. This pretty much addresses maybe 60 to 70 schools. It was initially¹¹ -- when the House proposed this particular tax, they had said $100,000 per full-time students, which would have affected¹² double the amount of schools, but there has been a lot of lobbying around this particular issue, because it's not only the Harvards, Princetons and really big brand-name schools that are affected by this, but some small liberal arts colleges that are really concerned about how this is going to affect their bottom line and their ability to offer financial aid to their students.

John Yang: Is there a policy goal there?

Danielle Douglas-gabriel: That's what's unclear at this point. So, when there was discussion about taxing endowments maybe a year ago, there were a lot of -- there were hearings in the House around the idea of perhaps getting universities to ensure that more of their endowments are used to help lower the cost of college. So, this was at that point an affordability¹³ issue. Well, that piece is not a part of this legislation whatsoever¹⁴. It's not like the money that they're taking from these endowments is going to be used to lower the cost of college by offering more grants and scholarships. It's just going to offset¹⁵ any other kind of tax -- corporate¹⁶ tax decreases that we might see as a result of these plans. And a lot of people are very concerned about that aspect. Folks could wrap their heads around the idea that we should incentivize universities to spend more of their endowment money on financial aid, but they can't necessarily wrap their heads around the idea of imposing¹⁷ this tax for the sake of helping¹⁸ corporations.

John Yang: Danielle Douglas-Gabriel of The Washington Post on the tax plans and higher education, thank you very much.

Danielle Douglas-gabriel: Thank you.

1 overhaul   

v./n.大修，仔细检查

参考例句：

• Master Worker Wang is responsible for the overhaul of this grinder.王师傅主修这台磨床。
• It is generally appreciated that the rail network needs a complete overhaul.众所周知，铁路系统需要大检修。

2 sectors   

n.部门( sector的名词复数 )；领域；防御地区；扇形

参考例句：

• Berlin was divided into four sectors after the war. 战后柏林分成了4 个区。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Industry and agriculture are the two important sectors of the national economy. 工业和农业是国民经济的两个重要部门。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

3 deduction   

n.减除，扣除，减除额；推论，推理，演绎

参考例句：

• No deduction in pay is made for absence due to illness.因病请假不扣工资。
• His deduction led him to the correct conclusion.他的推断使他得出正确的结论。

4 deduct   

vt.扣除，减去

参考例句：

• You can deduct the twenty - five cents out of my allowance.你可在我的零用钱里扣去二角五分钱。
• On condition of your signing this contract,I will deduct a percentage.如果你在这份合同上签字，我就会给你减免一个百分比。

5 relatively   

adv.比较...地，相对地

参考例句：

• The rabbit is a relatively recent introduction in Australia.兔子是相对较新引入澳大利亚的物种。
• The operation was relatively painless.手术相对来说不痛。

6 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

7 stipends   

n.（尤指牧师的）薪俸( stipend的名词复数 )

参考例句：

8 stipend   

n.薪贴；奖学金；养老金

参考例句：

• The company is going to ajust my stipend from this month onwards.从这一个月开始公司将对我的薪金作调整。
• This sum was nearly a third of his total stipend.这笔钱几乎是他全部津贴的三分之一。

9 excise   

n.(国产)货物税；vt.切除，删去

参考例句：

• I'll excise the patient's burnt areas.我去切除病人烧坏的部分。
• Jordan's free trade zone free of import duty,excise tax and all other taxes.约旦的自由贸易区免收进口税、国内货物税及其它一切税收。

10 full-time   

adj.满工作日的或工作周的，全时间的

参考例句：

• A full-time job may be too much for her.全天工作她恐怕吃不消。
• I don't know how she copes with looking after her family and doing a full-time job.既要照顾家庭又要全天工作，我不知道她是如何对付的。

11 initially   

adv.最初，开始

参考例句：

• The ban was initially opposed by the US.这一禁令首先遭到美国的反对。
• Feathers initially developed from insect scales.羽毛最初由昆虫的翅瓣演化而来。

12 affected   

adj.不自然的，假装的

参考例句：

• She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
• His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。

13 affordability   

可购性

参考例句：

• Performance-Based Logistics Affordability: Can We Afford Categorical Conversion to Performance-Based Acquisition? 基于性能的后期的可承受性：能否担负得起向基于性能的采办的无条件的转变？
• There would be no crisis of affordability, as't for food or clothing. 就想食物与服装一样，因为供给没有危机。

14 whatsoever   

adv.（用于否定句中以加强语气）任何；pron.无论什么

参考例句：

• There's no reason whatsoever to turn down this suggestion.没有任何理由拒绝这个建议。
• All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you,do ye even so to them.你想别人对你怎样，你就怎样对人。

15 offset   

n.分支，补偿；v.抵消，补偿

参考例句：

• Their wage increases would be offset by higher prices.他们增加的工资会被物价上涨所抵消。
• He put up his prices to offset the increased cost of materials.他提高了售价以补偿材料成本的增加。

16 corporate   

adj.共同的，全体的；公司的，企业的

参考例句：

• This is our corporate responsibility.这是我们共同的责任。
• His corporate's life will be as short as a rabbit's tail.他的公司的寿命是兔子尾巴长不了。

17 imposing   

adj.使人难忘的，壮丽的，堂皇的，雄伟的

参考例句：

• The fortress is an imposing building.这座城堡是一座宏伟的建筑。
• He has lost his imposing appearance.他已失去堂堂仪表。

18 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。