Melissa, here are excerpts from the THM: “ANNOUNCER: (music) Welcome to the tele-forum conference centre. Please enter your tele-forum ID code, followed by the pound key now. (touch-tones) This tele-forum powered by Broadnet is currently in progress. Please note that this [public tele-TownHall Meeting] call may be monitored, recorded, or rebroadcast...CONGRESSMAN ROSS: 'We need leadership...not from behind but [rather] leadership from the front...OK, ah, if you have a question, press star three (*3)...Ah, Gordon in Lakeland.' GORDON WAYNE WATTS: 'Hey, how's it going, Dennis?' DENNIS ROSS: 'Good, how are you doing?' GORDON WAYNE WATTS: 'Before I ask my question, I wanted to remind most of the people who have probably forgotten [how he recognised me from long ago, and made me feel welcome, at one prior Town Hall Meeting, in spite of knowing how hard my THM typically questions are]...[I ask about updates on unrelated Immigration free-hotel scams]...' CONGRESSMAN ROSS:'Gordon, I can't tell you right now, but I'm going to have that staff person get back with you. GORDON WAYNE WATTS: 'Um hmm... Could I ask another question, real quickly, if I could...I know we've discussed this before, and you were good enough to put up [with my hard questions] and what-not, but... uh, you – you...you could file for bankruptcy, if you went in debt, uh... Donald Trump filed for bankruptcy for Millions...[but] College Students can almost never file for bankruptcy. And, you know me – I'm Conservative: I don't want an easy way out. But the Free Market forces,... but the ability to file for bankruptcy in the financial world is like the Second Amendment in the physical world: The [college] student is unable to defend himself – and the Predatory Lending, and inflation of the tuition results. [And the reasons?] The Liberals made the loans easily available. And the so-called 'Conservatives' removed the Bankruptcy Protections, which is [sic: 'are'] the 'Economic Second Amendment'. And, I don't think that it's fair that everyone in the world can file for Bankruptcy, except a College Student. And... and, I want a... I mean, Bankruptcy won't [necessarily] get the person off [out of debt] totally – they'll still have to pay something. But that... that violates, uh... the U.S. Constitution's, uh... prohibition against unequal Bankruptcy Law. [E.g., the U.S. Constitution's uniformity clause, Art. I, Sec. 8, Clause 4.] It's in the U.S. Constitution about, uh, [how] the U.S. Bankruptcy Laws have to be uniform. And this [law] violates that [clause]. And, of course, it's just morally wrong – that you could file for bankruptcy, Donald Trump can file for bankruptcy, but I can't. And... and, people are ruined! They [student borrowers] are committing suicide in some cases [over this]. And, I would like you to file a bill that just makes them equal with everyone else. I mean, what... what can you tell me about that? CONGRESSMAN ROSS: 'Well, you've recognised a very big problem that we have—and that's having the Government in the business of Student Loans.' GORDON WAYNE WATTS: 'Amen.' CONGRESSMAN ROSS: 'What we had when I was in school were guarantees by the Federal Government that the money that was actually loaned was from banks. It was Private Money that was guaranteed by the Federal Government. The Banks took the initial risk, but they compete...but they competed for my business, and I went to several banks and got the Student Loans. And then I consolidated with Sallie Mae, the student loan mortgage association and eventually paid them off. You know, the other thing that I think [is that] we're being very disingenuous to our students about, uh, is that we're setting them up for failure – not only because of the inability to have any relief, such as setting up a...a Loan Forgiveness to occupations that we need: nurses, doctors, engineers, professions that we desperately need to have in our country – that we could give them a Loan Forgiveness if they commit so much time, uh, in the program for a particular project. But the other thing is, and I've learned this going over and meeting with the Financial Aid director, at the University of South Florida in Tampa, is that we're giving an expectation that you can get as much money, for whatever you need, while you're in school, by way of a loan. And your occupation that you're being trained for may not ever be able to afford to pay back that loan. You may... you may have $150,000.oo in loans, but you may have a job that only pays... that will only pay a maximum of, let's say, $35,000.oo per year over you life. You can't feasible and reasonably pay for that. We're being disingenuous... Look, I think one of the best investments I ever made in my life was in my Education. There's no question about it: If people want to go [to college] they should have their opportunity to go, but we should make it affordable. And we need to get The Government out of the business of loaning the money, because we're loaning taxpayer dollars. We should invite more Private Capitol, we should make it more competitive, and let the banks take the risks : That's what they're in the business of doing! And, if they take the risk, and if a person can't pay back , then we go back to your [prior] Bankruptcy Laws, which, umm... You know, the [current] Bankruptcy Laws right now... If a student does file for Bankruptcy, they can have all other debt discharged—but their Student Loans. So, we're not really doing a good service, either way, uh, by making them over-indebted for their Education. You raise a very good point, and I appreciate that.' GORDON WAYNE WATTS: 'Thanks very much, Dennis.'CONGRESSMAN ROSS: 'Ah... Star-three' (*3) to participate... Ah, because of our late start, to vote [on a selected topic, via touch-tone], uh, we're only going to take one more question...and, we've got Frank in Mulberry (Florida)...[who asks about promises to seal the border and address Immigration problems – redacted for brevity, but accessible in audio links above]...'