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IOWA CITY, Iowa -- President Obama appeared at his third "official event" in two days on Wednesday to promote extending student loan relief at an event that had the feel more of a campaign rally.
At the University of Iowa, the president voiced a message before a crowd of more than 4,000 centered on urging Congress to prevent the doubling of government-backed student loan interest rates in July.
"This is where I really need you guys, Congress needs to act right now to prevent interest rates on federal student loans from shooting up and shaking you down," Obama said to applause, imploring the students to turn up the heat on lawmakers.
Carolyn Kaster / AP
President Barack Obama speaks at the University of Iowa April 25 in Iowa City, Iowa.
But the impasse on Capitol Hill doesn't stem from a debate over whether to maintain the current interest rate, but rather, how to pay for it. Extending the current interest rate for another year will cost about $6 billion, according to a White House aide. But the White House stresses they're committed to extending the rate without adding to the deficit.
President Obama speaks to thousands of people at the University of Iowa Fieldhouse as part of a weeklong push to renew a student loan measure.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) introduced a bill on Wednesday to continue the lower interest rate, which the President said was "good news." However, the bill is financed by closing a payroll tax loophole for a certain type of business, something Republicans may not support.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell was dismissive of Reid's bill, as well as the president's college tour.
"If the president was more interested in solving this problem than in hearing the sound of his own voice or the applause of college students, all he'd have to do is pick up the phone and work it out with congress. We don't want the interest rates on these loans to double in this economy," he said.
The Republican leader continued: "The only reason Democrats proposed this solution to the problem is to get Republicans to oppose it and make us cast a vote they think will make us look bad to voters they need to win in the next election."
But Obama pushed back at Congress with his own snarky rhetoric, saying that if Republicans think he's talking about student loans to distract from the economy then, "These guys don't get it. This is the economy...What economy are they talking about?"
According to the College Board, In 2010-11, 7.8 million undergraduate students took out subsidized Stafford loans to help pay for their college education. Many of them would see about $1,000 added, on average, to the cost of their loan over its lifetime if rates were to increase.
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So Obama is touting his Student Loan program, what about jobs for those students or have you just given up on jobs and using these things as distractions from economy and jobs.
I think that it is a great idea for us to borrow more money from Red China and pay interest on it for the next 170 years so that some of our unemployed can be better educated.
no need for jobs when the government is giving away all of this free stuff.
I am glad that the President has found another opportunity to leave Washington. It has been such a long time since he has had a chance to leave town. I hope that the President enjoys this little vacation. I hope that his secret services does not get themselves into trouble in Iowa.
Another 6 billion dollars may not sound like much, but because our deficits are already so high the government will end up having to borrow even more money to cover this. Furthermore, because the federal government is already more than 15 trillion dollars in debt, I estimate that this will end up costing the tax payers 54 billion dollars to repay before if is all paid back in 170 years. Where does it end? The President promised the American people that the 2012 federal deficit will not exceed 229.27 billion dollars, yet the White House is predicting that the deficit will exceed 1.3 trillion dollars which is more than 5 times what the President promised. The President has not told that American people that he is not going to keep his promise so I want him to explain how he is going to pull it of. The President made the promise without conditions so it is not dependent on any action of congress nor the economy. The President has been making speeches all over the place and has had plenty of opportunity to provide this crucial explanation to the American people. I also want the President to provide a plan for the federal government to pay back all of the money that it owes. I want to know how long it is going to take and how much is it going to end up costing the tax payers.
We are just starting to see the tip of the iceberg here folks. You can forget about Obama doing anything related to his job as POTUS. He is in full campaign mode at our expense. He will be pandering to any minority group, union group, student group, you name it, anyone with their hand out who might listen to his lies.
Jody from Iowa had said the all loans should have an interest floor of 6.8% if the default rate caused the need for this interest rate. That depends on the loan and the default rate.
We take 2.87% for treasuries (the cost of the monies loaned) add in 1% for servicing costs, we are already at 3.87% which is above the subsidized rate. An interest rate of 6.8% would allow a default rate of less than 3% per year to break even. The default rate on student loans is much higher than 3% per year.
Of course, the real argument will be how do we pay for the subsidies? The Dems will say through new taxes and the GOP will say through cuts to other areas of the budget.
The Boy don't have a thing to run on . so he is fooling uninformed ignorant kids . He fooled them once so why not keep fooling them . They don't know any better .
Another promise to a targeted audience to give them something using other people's money.
Has he bought off enough special interest to get to 51% yet?
Wow,. how ingenious.
The student loan stuff that's the focal point of Obama's speeches that he's making to youth wherever he goes is legislation the Democrats wrote but he won't tell you that! He talked about it a lot yesterday. The interest rate increase is coming up for a vote on July 1st because the Democrat-controlled Congress in 2007 wanted it that way. Obama is running around scaring these students who don't know the facts or the truth behind this, that if something isn't done by the Congress, by July 1st, their student loan interest rate will double.
The Democrats controlled both houses of Congress in 2007. They had just won the election. The House, they took it back in 2006. Pelosi's running the House; Democrats are running the Senate. So 2007 they passed legislation that would cut the student loan interest rate in half and then reinstituted it July 1st this year, on purpose. They wanted the college student loan interest rate to double in an election year, in the summer right before the conventions. They were rolling the dice.
So that it would appear to be doubling to students this year, the Democrats did all of this. They did it to have a campaign issue in case they needed it in 2012. July 1st. So five years ago they planned this. Obama was a Senator in 2007, and he didn't even vote on this bill. Twice! There were two votes on raising the college loan interest rate back to what it will be -- doubling it, in effect -- on July 1st, 2012. He didn't even vote "present." He was too busy campaigning. That's how vitally important the issue of student loan interest rates was to him back then.
vote for the only American candidate in 2012 presidential election.
ANYBODY BUT OBAMA 2012!!!!!!
AMERICA IS DEPENDING ON US.
no need for jobs when the government is giving away all of this free stuff.
jo: You keep posting about "free stuff"...where are you getting all this "free stuff"?
Isn’t it ironic? The food stamp program, part of the Department of
Agriculture, is pleased to be distributing the greatest amount of food stamps
ever.
Meanwhile, the Park Service, also part of the Department of Agriculture,
asks us to "please do not feed the animals" because the animals may
grow dependent and not learn to take care of themselves.
Does Obama ever get his priorities straight?
Whether it is health reform, student loans, mortgage relief, tax cuts, bail out of companies critical to our economy, Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security, etc. It is clear that Obama wants to do what benefits 99% of the people in this country while the GOP wants to do what benefits the other 1%.
PHEAA takes 1/3 of my take-home pay, plus my federal tax return every year. My husband is not working due to chronic/severe medical problems and I'm supporting both of us on $200 every two weeks. Now out of that, I have to figure out how to pay a $700 mortgage, all of the utilities, groceries, car insurance and I pay about $4,000 a year in prescription/doctor co-pays. We cannot get any help because my gross amount exceeds the limit and they don't take into account any of our medical expenses and the fact that PHEAA takes 1/3 of my take-home pay. What's wrong with this picture?