President Obama to Call on Congress to Freeze Interest Hike on Student Loans
At 1:40 p.m. today, the president will make a public address asking Congress to take action on this issue. His remarks will be streamed live at WhiteHouse.gov/live.
On July 1, the interest rates of approximately 7.4 million students' federal loans are scheduled to double unless Congress and President Barack Obama agree to freeze the rate for at least another year. While both the Obama administration and Republican leaders agree the rate should be frozen at the current 3.4 percent, the two have been unable to reach a compromise on how to pay for the plan. Under a plan proposed and passed by the House in April, the interest rate freeze would be funded by cutting some $6 billion from Obama's preventative health care program. However, the White House has said it would veto such legislation as the proposed bill would take money from health programs that fund services like cancer screening and child …
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Jenny Whalen
1:00 pm on Thursday, June 21, 2012
I supposed the silver lining here is that the President and Congress agree on at least one thing, although that doesn't do us much good if they can't agree on how to make it happen. Who should bend here? more ›