Likely Republican presidential candidate Chris Christie said on Sunday that he supported using "market forces" to bring down the price of college instead of proposals that would make education free.
During an interview with Christie on ABC's This Week, host George Stephanopoulos noted Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders had called to tax wall street speculation in order to eliminate college tuition.
"What's your alternative?" the host asked the New Jersey governor.
"My alternative is we have to start to put market forces on these college costs," Christie replied. "I pay for two college tuitions right now, one at Princeton and one at Notre Dame. And I can tell you that they're the most opaque bills you'll ever see in your life."
"If you got that bill for dinner with that little of that detail, you wouldn't pay it," he insisted. "And secondly, we need to start to say unbundle that. So if a child doesn't want to pay for all of these different things in college, they should be able to select it."
Stephanopoulos pointed out that the G.I. Bill had paid for Christie's father's education.
"You talked about your dad and what he got on the G.I. Bill. Studies show that there's a seven to one return on that kind of an investment," Stephanopoulos reminded the likely candidate. "Why not for all Americans?"
"It is available for all Americans," Christie insisted. "We have grant programs that are very broadly used. We have loan programs that are very broadly used."
"And by the way, my dad went for six years at night," he added. "He worked all day to help to put himself through college."
