Mitt Romney broke with House Republicans on Monday by backing a White House push this week to extend lower rates on student loans for millions of Americans that are set to expire this year. But the Obama campaign is keeping up the pressure on him over college affordability, noting that the House GOP budget he has endorsed includes cuts to Pell Grants and other education funding. It also accused him of talking tough on the deficit while still trying to reassure Americans that popular programs — like the student loan rates — would still be affordable and declining to make public most of his planned cuts.
“Mitt Romney continues to make promises that he can’t keep,” Obama spokeswoman Lis Smith said in a statement. “While he previously endorsed the Ryan budget, which would make deep cuts to Pell Grants and allow student loan rates to double, and last week said that he would gut the Department of Education to pay for his tax plan, today we heard yet another—and contradictory—position from Romney on student loans As the list of promises Mitt Romney has made to the American people gets longer—from giving $5 trillion in tax breaks to the wealthiest Americans to claiming that he would balance the budget—the numbers just don’t add up. The real question is whether Mitt Romney is being honest about his agenda and if so, whether he will come clean about the necessarily painful cuts he would have to make to meet all of his promises.”
