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April 26, 2012 09:41 PM UTC

Running From The Student Loan Rate Hike, Part II

  • 32 Comments
  • 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.

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32 thoughts on “Running From The Student Loan Rate Hike, Part II”

  1. Obama points it out this week, and they stop being assholes, and then claim they never were being assholes.  I really, REALLY like this formula.

    I was wrong though.  I said yesterday I had no confidence in them getting anything done on this.

    1. Once again, you’re only getting half the story from Colorado Pols.

      http://dailycaller.com/2012/04…

      Boehner said Obama is waging “fake” fights to win re-election.  “The emperor has no clothes,” he said.

      “This week the president traveled across the country on taxpayers dime at a cost of $179,000 an hour insisting that Congress fix a problem that we were already working on,” Boehner said Thursday at the Capitol, referring to student loan interest rates set to double on July 1. “Frankly, I think this is beneath the dignity of the White House. Democrats and Republicans knew that this was going to take effect.”

      “Democrats and Republicans fully expected this would be taken care of, and for the president to make a campaign issue out of this and then to travel to three battleground states and go to three large college campuses on taxpayers’ money and to try to make this a political issue is pathetic, and his campaign ought to be reimbursing the treasury for the cost of this trip.”

      1. We have always agreed on student loan rates.

        Face it, Republicans wrote a budget that increased student loan rates, then they realized it was unpopular and ran away crying from the big old mean President. Why don’t you guys suck your thumbs and get over it?

        1. Republicans want to pay for the subsidy fairly, and Democrats want to pay for it on the backs on job creators. There are real differences in the positions of the two parties. It’s a shame that all Democrats want to do is play games and point fingers.

              1. What service are you talking about? It’s not placing the burden on student loan borrowers – that would kind of defeat the purpose. The GOP bill places the burden on people seeking preventative health care services.

                Oil subsidies increase profits for oil companies. If increased profits created jobs then we would have much lower unemployment considering big oil is raking in record profits. Demand creates jobs. Without demand, there is no need for workers. Oil companies are meeting the demand of consumers at current employment rates, thus no need to create new jobs. Further subsidies go straight to their bottom line.

              2. I got this great new job–comes with a brown shirt, a blue helmet and everything!  I list other people’s assets that we can begin confiscating for redistribution, starting January 21, 2013.  Not sure why that is the effective date, but it says so right here in this note from George Soros.  Anyhow, you are right there at the top of my list.  I have one question–can you remind me of the Blue Book value on that silly thing you drive?  You won’t be needing personal transportation in your new assignment.  

                Thanks!

          3. Agop, do you know there’s a difference between a Stafford Loan and corporate welfare, or an “entitelment” like subsidies to big oil?

            Entitlements aren’t loans. When the republican House votes for the American taxpayer to give oil companies walking  around money, that’s subsidies, when we pay to keep the Straits of Hormuz open, or for security for Haliburton’s operations in the Middle East, that’s money we never get back.

            That’s how entitlements work.

            Loans aren’t in that category, and the Stafford Program, for instance is a low interest (used to be anyway) loan that students pay back to the Federal Government.

            Those loans are not entitlements.

            Also, “job creators” don’t create jobs. Demand and the ability of a consumer to pay creates jobs.

            I’m thinking you’re getting your ass kicked on a daily basis here because you’re letting your ideology blind you to facts on the ground.

            You should know what you’re talking about when you post.

            And if you’re not in the top 1%, you’d better figure this out.  

      2. you are correct. Congressional R’s were way out front on this issue:

        “The students who rack up student loan debt are just ‘sitting on their butts having opportunity dumped in your lap.” – Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-NC

              3. A conspirator will NEVER tell you there is a conspiracy because then everyone would know that there is a conspiracy which relies on secrecy to be successful so there is no point in asking a conspirator if there is one because they will lie to you and say there isn’t everytime.

                H-man repeatedly said he wasn’t paid either but he disappeared on election night 2010 never to return.  I told H-man the same thing whenever he said that he had inside polling information that Buck would win.  “Even if it is true, I can’t believe you because you would just as easily lie to me if it wasn’t.”

                As far as your worth, I would classify more as clown value than reasoned contributions.

              4. You come here with your 176k talking point and you act oblivious to the fact the all previous presidents have gone out and engaged their constituents about the benefits of their issues.  Bush flew all over the country trying to selling the privatization of Social Security.

                But with this president, anything he supports even if it is for the good of the country, you have to hate.  So you come here and because you just can’t come out and say that you only want rich kids to get a college education and everyone else deserves to their slaves, you have to pick at his transportation costs for engaging with the people.  If had he stayed in Washington you would accuse him of being out of touch with the heartland.

                It is just dishonest shit to 1) pretend he is doing something that none of his predecessors did which is not true and 2) say that you really do want America do have a educated workforce when in fact you are a champion for a new feudal system and the destruction of America as a meritocracy where anyone can dream of upward mobility.  You want the rich to be untouchable and everyone else to fight for the crumbs in the new Hunger Games.

                Like I said you’re a clown who is amusing in your contorted hatred for an equal and diverse political system and a society that rewards effort and merit and not just inherited wealth.  You make Bozo look mature.

      4. Did he ask for votes or campaign support? Did he even mention the election? Is the President not allowed to travel around the country and speak to his constituents? Please tell me how this can be defined as campaigning?

        How on Earth can we take seriously the claim that “Republicans fully expected this would be taken care of” when they’ve already voted against keeping the interest rates low?

        I don’t know why I ask you questions because we all know you won’t respond.  

        1. I have heard every Republican say this week repeatedly and sincerely that they do not want the interest rate to go up. The budget is not the only bill passed by Congress. There is no reason to not assume our good faith, except that you have none.

          1. There’s plenty of reason not to assume your good faith. I recall the Senate Minority Leader proclaiming his top priority was to defeat President Obama. Or, the fact that GOP leaders held a meeting on inauguration day in 2009 to plot the defeat of President Obama, in which Newt Gingrich said, “Gingrich proclaimed, “You will remember this day. You’ll remember this as the day the seeds of 2012 were sown.”

            But I should just trust them because they never play political games…

          3. So if they were going to keep the rates down the whole time. Why not put it into the budget and than say “Hey look we are trying to keep the rates low, but the Dems are not allowing it to go through.”

            Two things come to mind: 1)Republicans don’t like beating up Democrats on a winning issue (I live on earth so pretty sure this isn’t it) or more likely 2)Republicans were going to allow the rates to double all along, until the President started talking about it, and they noticed they were getting the crap beaten out of them.

            Seems pretty simple logic… but with you logic went out the window long long time ago.  

  2. This is one of those cases where election campaigns cross over into appropriate use of the bully pulpit.  Boehner’s complaining because Obama happens to have a winning issue that also happens to be pending legislation.

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