NORTH DAKOTA (KXNET) — Top priorities for our state lawmakers include funding for schools and job creation.
But for the next few weeks, KX News’ Adrienne Oglesby asks some North Dakota lawmakers about national policies and their effects on North Dakota.
KX News created a political panel made up of four of our state elected officials: Republicans Jeff Magrum and Jeff Hoverson and Democrats Josh Boschee and Karla Rose Hanson.
We will go through five categories: funding, immigration, nationwide issues, health care, and state issues. As both sides have different views, the common goal that you elected them for is to be the voices for our state.
On Friday night, we are discussing funds. Starting with student loans, what can be done with them?
For the Republicans, they do not understand why it’s so hard to pay back student loans.
“The whole idea behind taking a loan is paying it back. Now, suddenly to not have to do that, I think, (A) it’s a slap in the face for those that do work hard and are careful about how much they take out as a loan, and (B), anytime you subsidize stuff like that, you always, and this is what I think gets overlooked a lot,” said Republican Rep. Jeff Hoverson of Minot, “Inevitably, you increase the very cost of what you are trying to subsidize. If you’re subsidizing tuition, no matter how you’re subsidizing tuition, whether it’s through the government or through easy loans or however it is, you’re going to put upward pressure on the tuition. And that’s just not something that we can just decide not to do. That’s how the economy works.”
Democrats in our state believe student loans should be forgiven because education has just gotten too expensive for the average family to afford.
“We know that student loans are a huge burden for not just young people, but people all the way into middle age, who are continuing to have to pay their student loans,” said Rep. Karla Rose Hanson, “It prevents them from really getting to buy a home or start a new business. We’re looking at ways to not just help people accelerate their lives, but also enter the workforce. If tuition is unaffordable, we won’t be getting people to train for the very jobs we need to fill. Nursing positions or teaching positions, things that our society needs.”
Both sides agree tuition has gotten outrageous, which has to be dealt with.
KX News shifted to funds being sent to Ukraine. Should we continue sending money to Ukraine, and if so, why? After all, some may say, we do have issues in our own nation.
“I’m not for giving billions of dollars of the taxpayers’ money to Ukraine. I wouldn’t be in favor of giving it to Russia either,” said Rep. Jeff Hoverson, “It’s really easy to be noble with other people’s money. I think that’s the heart of the problem. It’s that the government has gotten so big and so used to spending the people’s money and taking it from them that we are sacrificing our own border by taking care of the border over there.”
The Democrats in North Dakota disagree.
“The support of the United States and other countries to provide Ukraine with resources is about defending democracy. If Russia takes over Ukraine, what’s next? It might enter into some of our NATO countries and then we’ll be forced to put men on the ground and women on the ground. And so, it’s very important to put men on the ground and women on the ground. It’s very important to defend democracies around the world,” said Rep. Karla Rose Hanson.
KX News will continue over the next four Fridays to discuss the large topics, like immigration, that we mentioned above.
