If Democratic leaders fail to pass their student loan fix into law, Democrats will be partly to blame.
Several Democratic senators who have partnered with Republicans on how to address the student loan interest rate spike held a press conference Tuesday in the Capitol touting their bipartisan student loan plan within moments of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) attacking that proposal as “worse than nothing.”
Sens. Joe Manchin (D-WV), Tom Carper (D-DE) and Angus King (I-ME) talked up their plan, which would tie the Stafford loan rate to the 10-year Treasury note, with some adjustments. They defended their plan against criticism from Reid and others, pointed out that it’s based on President Obama’s proposal, and said they’ll seek a vote on it.
Manchin said he hasn’t spoken to the White House about the issue. The Republicans sponsors of the bipartisan plan are Sens. Tom Coburn (OK), Richard Burr (NC) and Lamar Alexander (TN).
Reid has scheduled a vote Wednesday to move forward with a separate Democratic plan which would revert to the 3.4 percent rate (which doubled last week) for one year, funded by closing a tax loophole that benefits upper earners. Republicans oppose that bill.
