GOP Congress vs. College Students

15 Comments

by: Colorado Pols

It’s a fight President Barack Obama is happy to pick, as the Washington Post reports:

President Obama will travel to college campuses in North Carolina, Colorado and Iowa next week to urge Congress to keep interest rates low on student loans, the White House announced Friday…

According to a White House fact sheet issued Friday, student loan rates for 7.4 million Americans will double on July 1 without congressional intervention to extend current rates. Without action, the higher rates would translate into $1,000 in additional debt each year for the average student, the fact sheet said.

Obama’s push will include an appearance by Education Secretary Arne Duncan at Friday’s White House briefing with Press Secretary Jay Carney; it will also feature a social-media campaign on Facebook, Twitter and Google+ using the hashtag #DontDoubleMyRate.

It’s tough to know what the Republican-controlled House will do with this in an election year, smacking as it does of the kind of “top-down solution” that won’t “create jobs.” Of course, you could respond that a little more money in student borrowers’ pockets would be good for the economy kind of like a tax cut, but as we learned with the payroll tax cut extension debate, Republicans just don’t see much value in tax cuts for people who don’t make enough to ~~buy a yacht with it~~ “benefit the economy.”

We’re not trying to be snarky, you’ll recall that’s, absent the yacht part, what they actually said.

Anyway, if we were giving the President political advice, this would definitely be on the short list of blows to strike. We expect that President Obama will carry the 18-24 year old demographic comfortably enough, but planting the flag this close to their wallets should help him run up the score.

15 thoughts on “GOP Congress vs. College Students”

ArapaGOP says:

April 20, 2012 at 9:27 pm

Yes, Pols, Obama gives generously of other people’s money.

I think a Hugo Chavez analogy is very appropriate, since that’s what he did too. He bought off the poor like a commie Robin Hood, and Obama was taking notes…

Log in to Reply
1. Aristotle says:
  
  April 20, 2012 at 9:29 pm
  
  It’s okay for the GOP to pander to xenophobes, but not okay for Dems to try to do anything about overinflated education prices?
  
  Whatever, dood, whatever…
  
  Log in to Reply
  1. ArapaGOP says:
    
    April 20, 2012 at 9:41 pm
    
    http://dailycaller.com/2012/04…
    
    The Democratic Party is springing a five-year-old political trap that may help President Barack Obama win support from middle-class parents and young voters.
    
    Their trap is the scheduled election-year doubling of interest rates on government-provided student loans.
    
    The pre-planned doubling forces GOP politicians to either approve a Democratic measure that extends the low interest rates, or else face protest from millions of students and their middle-class parents.
    
    Many GOP legislators dislike the subsidized interest rate because it inflates education costs while delivering a disguised subsidy to the Democrats’ political allies in the education industry.
    
    This is very much about pandering and politics. Don’t try to pretend it isn’t.
    
    Log in to Reply
    1. Aristotle says:
      
      April 20, 2012 at 9:46 pm
      
      The “daily caller” is a rightie blog – one no self respecting independent would take seriously, right?
      
      Why, yes it is.
      
      Find objective analysis from an neutral source. I won’t hold my breath…
      
      Log in to Reply
      1. dukeco1 says:
        
        April 20, 2012 at 9:49 pm
        
        In ABOTs’ defense, he at least provided a link. Even if it is a link to Bizarro world, it’s better than the tadpoles’ best efforts.
        
        Log in to Reply
        
        Aristotle says:
        
        April 20, 2012 at 9:50 pm
        
        Log in to Reply
    2. ajb says:
      
      April 20, 2012 at 11:54 pm
      
      Hmmmm…Who was president 5 years ago?
      
      Oh no! Bush-whacked again!
      
      Log in to Reply
      1. Phoenix Rising says:
        
        April 21, 2012 at 5:04 am
        
        of 11-dimensional chess…
        
        Face it, if the rising oceans of global warming came up and flooded the streets of New York next week, Republicans would blame Obama for setting them up on the issue.
        
        Log in to Reply
    3. MADCO says:
      
      April 21, 2012 at 8:19 am
      
      Student loans should charge the corresponding Treasury rate. ANd should go down now
      
      Log in to Reply
2. RedGreen says:
  
  April 20, 2012 at 9:52 pm
  
  You know who else bought off the poor like a commie Robin Hood? Dwight D. Eisenhower, by building those interstate highways. Once you give the poor their roads, who knows where they’ll go.
  
  Log in to Reply
3. Canines says:
  
  April 21, 2012 at 12:01 am
  
  Obama’s plan helps the middle class, in addition to the poor.
  
  Log in to Reply
  1. RedGreen says:
    
    April 21, 2012 at 12:41 am
    
    You’re undermining the comparison with Hugo Chavez.
    
    Log in to Reply
4. DavidThi808 says:
  
  April 21, 2012 at 1:56 am
  
  About the 25(?) billion PER YEAR Republican buyoff of oil companies?
  
  Log in to Reply
ncycat says:

April 20, 2012 at 11:06 pm

Republicans and their banking buddies are ruthless when it comes to extorting money from the American people–and high interest rates on student loans are extortion, pure and simple. If we received the subsidies and bailouts they so generously lavish on their wealthy friends, we too could enjoy a higher standard of living. The money supply in the US has not shrunk..it has been shifted into their bank accounts, leaving less for us to work with. If our public servants in government want to forestall massive defaults, they had better come up with other solutions than sophomoric insults and cavalier disregard for the consequences of their idiotic policies.

Log in to Reply
DavidThi808 says:

April 21, 2012 at 1:58 am

But what would be gigantic is to end educational inflation. And the federal government has that power – because they can limit all federal aid, grants, research funds, etc. to schools where the full cost of tuition is under a set number.

At present every increase in available aid is matched by an increase in tuition. The result is it is growing at twice the rate of medical inflation.

Log in to Reply