Obama Student Loans Plan: President Speaking In North Carolina, Colorado

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — Courting college voters, President Barack Obama said Tuesday that Congress needs to keep the cost of college loans from skyrocketing for millions of students, taking an election-year pitch to three states crucial to his bid to hold onto the White House.

Obama told students at the University of North Carolina that he personally understood the burden of college costs, noting that he and first lady Michelle Obama had "been in your shoes" and didn't pay off their student loans until eight years ago.

"I didn't just read about this. I didn't just get some talking points about this. I didn't get a policy briefing on this," Obama said, recalling he and his wife shared a "mountain of debt" not a long time ago. "When we married, we got poor together."

The emphasis on his personal experience set up a contrast with his likely Republican presidential opponent, Mitt Romney, whose father was a wealthy auto executive.

By taking on student debt, Obama spoke to middle-class America and targeted an enormous burden that threatens the economic recovery. He was heading to campuses in the South, West and Midwest to sell his message to colleges audiences bound to support it.

Pressuring Republicans in Congress to act, he sought to energize the young people essential to his campaign – those who voted for him last time and the many more who have turned voting age since then. Obama urged students to take their message to social media sites like Twitter to pressure their lawmakers.

Both Obama and Romney have expressed support for freezing the current interest rates on the loan for poorer and middle-class students but lawmakers are still exploring ways to pay for the plan. The issue is looming because the rate will double from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent on July 1 without intervention by Congress, an expiration date chosen in 2007 when a Democratic Congress voted to chop the rate in half.

Also on HuffPost:

Comments

[Dustee]

09:33 AM on 04/25/2012

For more then three year, the Republicans have tried to make the President, "the other" from planet 'Borg'. And yet 56% of Americans see the President more favorably then the 35% that see Mittens in a favorable atmosphere.

I think it's time to start asking for Romney birth certificate.

[hhoc612710]

08:53 AM on 04/25/2012

What a contrast with the "OUT OF TOUCH " Romney. Obama has been in the student's shoes with a mountain of debt and I dont think Romney can unterstand that. No wonder youth prefer Obama.
Now it's going to be interesting to see how the Mitt will use his "Etch A sckech to pivit to the center. Obama 2012

[jmlambion]

08:01 PM on 04/24/2012

Republicans keep telling us "its our money". Republicans borrowed our money for War, they borrowed our money for Medicare Part D, they borrowed our money for tax breaks, they loan our money to Banks @ 0%, but they think loaning our money to our children @ 3.4% interest against their future is an unbearable burden. What Republicans really hate is that Banks are no longer acting as intermediaries, loaning our money to our children and skimming the interest off the top. Their are no campaign contribution kick backs when the Government cuts out the Banks and makes direct loans to students.

[DRaymond]

06:36 PM on 04/24/2012

Currently the federal government is paying 1.9 percent on ten year T-bills.  That means even at the 'halved' 3.4 percent interest rate the government is making money on these student loans.  So the whole question on 'how to pay for' these loans is bogus.  The government makes money off of them, 

That was why the 2012 expiration was chosen in 2007...because they were analyzing the program based on prices of 5 year treasury bonds.  Since they did not know what the T-Bill rate would be in 2012 they did not know whether the 3.4 percent rate would still be right.  But the rate on intermediate length T-Bills remains low...so there is no reason not to continue with the 3.4 percent rate.  This isn't a matter of the government giving away anything to the students....the government makes a profit on these loans!

So that's it.  The Republicans don't just want you to pay for your education.  They want to make money off of you paying for your education so they can give breaks to the people who most likely are not going to give you a job anyway.

[t iessa]

06:23 PM on 04/24/2012

You mean the bill he didn't vote, on not once but twice, when he was a senator? Oh, OK.

[whoissurprised]

06:00 PM on 04/24/2012

ALERT: US TAXPAYERS

OBAMA will burden the taxpayers with more DEBT as he will forgive the studenty loans including underwater housing for votes. Obama' s 16.2 TRILLION DOLLAR DEBT will begin to look like 20 TRILLION right before the November 2012 election. Obama will open the our energy reserve even though there is NOT a disaster to bring gas prices now for votes. OBAMA IS A DESTROYER.

[tangelan]

04:34 PM on 04/24/2012

Does the number of tr o lls on this thread correlate to how good the speech was?

[nicothebaker]

05:07 PM on 04/24/2012

trolls=modern day Paul reveres

[wahoocheryl]

08:42 PM on 04/24/2012

Exactly. Their guy attacked some cookies and those who provided them.. I love my POTUS!!!

[nilsjames]

04:05 PM on 04/24/2012

Why don't we see ourselves when we look at Americans on assistance? Why do so many assume that government assistance promotes laziness yet nobody ever says that they, themselves would become lazy if they received government assistance? There is no biological difference between the wealthy and the poor. Any of us, regardless of our current sitiation, could've just as easily found ourselves somewhere else economically speaking; born into a poor family, good grades in school, good role models, a life changing epiphany, hard work and determination, catastrophe, poor choices, addiction, children, we could all, at any time, have gone down a different road in life and only blind hubris prevents some individuals from considering that. With that in mind I find it troubling that we, as a nation, cannot get it together enough to have an adult conversation about how to fix the ever-increasing challenges we face. Education is the cheapest and fastest ticket out of poverty, period. Our moral compass is perhaps more askew than we can admit when we have elected officials railing against letting tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans expire while there are children, CHILDREN, literally starving to death in the streets in some parts of this country. That's an extreme example, I admit. All things considered, I would rather the government forgive all federal student loan debt, even if it raises my taxes, than continue policies that will eventually make education a luxury.

[ny hot mic]

03:25 PM on 04/24/2012

No Joke: After Racking Up $5 Trillion In Debt, Obama Lectures People About Being “Responsible”…

Apparently accumulating more debt than Bush did over eight years counts as “responsible” in Obama’s book.

[VKAPAT]

04:51 PM on 04/24/2012

Yeah.. Bush did not know how to count for the two wars..and proscription bill.
and TANKED the country!

Do the math ,,,and analyze before... you write or read...the script of FOX news...

[indietom]

05:12 PM on 04/24/2012

Don't forget the two tax cuts (2001 & 2003) were also off budget and not paid for by Bush benefiting primarily the wealthy. Cuts made during time of war and resulting in a loss of much needed revenue.

[Setthemfree]

11:07 PM on 04/24/2012

Bush did nothing but waste taxpayer money.

[ny hot mic]

03:17 PM on 04/24/2012

As senator, Obama missed votes on student loan bill he now wants to extend.

Where's the surprise here, we're talking about a man who voting 129 times PRESENT as a Senator. Not "yes" or "no" but PRESENT. Really!

[mugwump44]

05:14 PM on 04/24/2012

red herring.

[ny hot mic]

03:14 PM on 04/24/2012

http://www.mindingthecampus.com/originals/2012/02/why_they_seem_to_rise_together.html

From the link:

1. The intended income transfers from taxpayers (and, increasingly bondholders) to students have been largely diverted to college coffers; swelling payrolls and leading to armies of new university bureaucrats, million-dollar college presidents, an academic arms race and other pathologies;

2. This, in turn, has thwarted university productivity growth and helps explain why higher education is vastly more expensive than in most other major developed countries;

3. The goal of helping low-income students has not been met, and a lower percent of recent college graduates come from less affluent students than was true in 1970 when Pell Grants did not exist;

4. To the extent that these aid programs have increased enrollments (read Gillen), they have added to the growing disconnect between labor-market realities and student job expectations, creating armies of college graduates who are bartenders, taxi drivers, etc.

5. Enrollment increases, in turn, have contributed to a dumbing down of higher education and to declining standards.

All true, and all unintended consequences.

We have to get it out of our heads that every kid needs to go to college. No, they' don't. A college-educated bartender is just a waste of money.

[nicothebaker]

03:14 PM on 04/24/2012

None of the students he was speaking to are smart enough to ask the President a question. He doesn't speak to adult groups that aren't already staged supporters. Or take any questions from the press corps. He really is an empty suit.

[noahmarder]

05:55 PM on 04/24/2012

The vast majority of college students are adults, and tend to be smarter than those who never went to college. When it comes to suppressing unfriendly questions, the Republicans are far worse.

Is there anything else you'd like to project?

[wahoocheryl]

08:36 PM on 04/24/2012

The people who attend his events are not staged. There is no need for the hate. Have you missed his press conferences or his interviews. And UNC-CH, students are not smart? What have you been smoking?

[kellywelch]

02:57 PM on 04/24/2012

It seems that the trolls are out in full force today!! Must not be any interesting Obama bashing going on today at Fox.

[ny hot mic]

02:50 PM on 04/24/2012

Obama is a miserable failure, can I get an amen? Can I get an “I resign and surrender”?

[volron]

02:52 PM on 04/24/2012

Amen.

[ny hot mic]

02:48 PM on 04/24/2012

It was Obama who took the student loan program away from private banks, but now it’s up to CONGRESS to do something about the interest rates.