On the recordJuly 12, 2012
Last Friday, President Obama signed into law a bipartisan compromise which extended a lower student interest rate of 3.4 percent. Incredibly, the ink was barely dry on that measure when the Romney campaign introduced their higher education plan, which would take us back to wasteful taxpayer subsidies to private student loan lenders. This is what the conservative Cato Institute said about that proposal: A meaningless change from a college affordability standpoint. Obviously, it would have an effect for banks, who would be happy to go back to that. It was a great gig for them. A Romney supporter at the new New America Foundation said on this issue: On this issue, Romney is just ridiculous. His campaign staff doesn't have any new ideas. So they just said, Let's go back to what we were doing before the Obama administration. For young Americans, the choice this fall is becoming clearer. We have a President who successfully challenged this Congress to protect the lower student loan interest rate, and his opponent, who is looking to take $60 billion in taxpayer funds and give it away to special interests. ____________________
