WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama used the college commencement season Saturday to get behind Senate Democratic legislation that would let college graduates with heavy debts refinance their loans.
The Senate is expected to debate the legislation next week, but it faces significant obstacles.
In his weekly radio and Internet address, Obama noted the program would be
paid for by doing away with tax loopholes for millionaires. He says the choice facing lawmakers is whether to “protect young people from crushing debt or protect tax breaks for millionaires.”
According to the Institute for College Access and Success, the average debt for
the class of 2012 was $29,400. Obama also notes that the unemployment rate for college graduates is about half what it is for high school graduates and that a typical college graduate makes $15,000 more a year than a worker with just a high school degree.
“At a time when college has never been more important, it’s also never been more expensive,” he says.
The White House is drawing attention to college affordability and student loans Monday with an event featuring Education Secretary Arne Duncan and Jill Biden, the wife of Vice President Joe Biden.
Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky in a statement criticized the bill for not addressing college costs.
“This bill doesn’t make college more affordable, reduce the amount of money
students will have to borrow, or do anything about the lack of jobs grads face in the Obama economy,” he said.
In the Republican weekly address, Rep. Jeff Miller of Florida, the chairman of the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee, called attention to recent findings of
widespread problems with delayed or mishandled appointments at VA
hospitals. He says Obama needs to describe fixes that improve VA service
for the long-term.
“This is the biggest health care scandal in the VA’s history, and America deserves to know whether the president is committed to doing whatever it takes to make things right,” Miller said.
Watch below:
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Online:
Obama address: www.whitehouse.gov
GOP address: www.speaker.gov
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redistributed.
“This bill doesn’t make college more affordable, reduce the amount of money students will have to borrow, or do anything about the lack of jobs grads face in the Obama economy,” McConnell said.
He forgot to mention that it also doesn’t resolve the differences between Quantum Mechanics and the Theory of Relativity, therefore it’s not worth consideration.
"He says the choice facing lawmakers is whether to “protect young people from crushing debt or protect tax breaks for millionaires.”
The man has no shame.
I was about to make a similar comment about McConnell’s silly statement.
And what about the substance of McConnell’s comments? Does his party want to make college more affordable? I can’t remember any proposals to that effect. As for the effect on jobs, I would guess that if students had more disposable income (after refinancing student loans), they would spend some of the savings, which would boost the economy and create more jobs. Not a large effect, but it’s wrong to say that the bill does “nothing” about the availability of jobs.
I’m surprised that McConnell didn’t also say that the student loan proposal was just the President’s attempt to distract from the Benghazi “scandal”.
It sounds to me like he’s saying colleges over-charge.
And the GOP claims this is socialism or somekind of ism. They believe anyone going to college from the masses should have to borrow from private concerns and make the top even richer. It is really just that simple.