On Martin Bashir’s Thursday MSNBC program, New York Democratic Rep. Charles Rangel said that no students should have to pay for college.

Rangel was reacting to President Barack Obama’s higher education proposal rollout that would put in place requirements for students and institutions to receive federal financial aid assistance.

Rangel explained to fill-in host Joy Reid that he support Obama’s plan, particularly the accountability components.

“I think it’s exciting, and certainly it’s going to bring in accountability,” he said. “You know, we have universities scattered all over the world. Sometimes you think that tuition means nothing to a large group of people who pay these enormous salaries to college presidents. But if you’re talking about production, if you’re talking about what is the college really giving someone that doesn’t want a worldwide education, they just want to be able to compete. This makes sense.”

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Rangel, however, told Reid those reforms alone weren’t enough and would offer college to Americans for free.

“But you know something, Joy?” Rangel continued. “There is no reason why a young person should have to pay for college education, because who does it benefit except a nation? Who are we competing against? Not ourselves, but China and other industrialized countries, they decide what they need, and they provide the incentives. Here we don’t have nurses and doctors, and then when a person gets out of health school, I mean out of medical school, they can’t get the money to pay off their debt. It doesn’t make sense.”

(h/t Newsbusters)

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