April 26, 2012 09:41 PM UTC

Running From The Student Loan Rate Hike, Part II

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• by: Colorado Pols

MSNBC’s First Read:

House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) accused President Obama of campaigning on taxpayer funds in response Wednesday to the president’s goading of lawmakers to act on a bill to extend low student loan rates.

In a hastily-arranged press conference, Boehner accused Obama of political theatrics in his two-day tour of three college campuses in swing states. In those stops, Obama assailed Republicans in Congress for holding up legislation that would prevent an increase in student loan interest rates.

“You know this week, the president is traveling the country on the taxpayer’s dime, campaigning and trying to invent a fight where there isn’t one and never has been one on this issue of student loans,” the Republican speaker said on Capitol Hill.

But as we’ve been talking about since President Barack Obama’s visit to the University of Colorado on Tuesday, it’s just not that simple. The Hill:

“They’re trying to change the subject,” [Democrat Chris] Van Hollen said, claiming Obama was “gaining traction” with voters by educating Americans about the July expiration of the program, which would double the current interest rates. “Speaker Boehner’s feeling the heat from the American people, so they’re now going to conveniently try and change their position.”

House Republicans this week rushed legislation to the floor that would extend the subsidies, preventing the interest rate from doubling when the current program expires July 1.

And why was it necessary to “rush” this bill to the floor again? National Journal:

“They all voted in favor of the Ryan budget, the Republican budget, their governing document,” White House press secretary Jay Carney said of House Republicans. A vote to keep rates low failed in committee deliberations over the budget, he added. [Pols emphasis]

“They can’t have it both ways” and support low student loan interest rates as well as the Ryan budget, Carney insisted. Republicans have decided to support the low rates “in large part because the president took his argument out to the country, and they felt that pressure.”

Despite Speaker John Boehner’s angry insistence that President Obama’s trip to Boulder (and other college campuses) this week was “theatrics” over an issue Republicans are in agreement on, the fact is that the Republican budget plan approved by the House last month allowed Stafford Loan interest rates to double. Republicans may have realized between that time and this week, when Obama started to beat them over the head with this issue, that they had made a mistake, but that’s not the same thing as always having been in agreement. They were not.

And if that’s right, this cheap revisionism is kind of a pathetic way to save face.