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cal04

(41,505 posts)
Sat Apr 21, 2012, 07:47 AM Apr 2012

President Obama: GOP needs to prevent doubling of student loan rates

Source: The Hill

President Obama is urging Congress to extend low interest rates on federal student loans.

"In America, higher education cannot be a luxury; it’s an economic imperative that every family must be able to afford," Obama said in his weekly address. "That’s why next week I’ll be visiting colleges across the country, talking to students about how we can make higher education more affordable – and what’s at stake right now if Congress doesn’t do something about it."

(snip)
"Over the past few years, Republicans in Congress have voted against new ways to make college more affordable for middle-class families, and voted for huge new tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires – tax cuts that would have to be paid for by cutting things like education and job-training programs that give students new opportunities to work and succeed," he said.

"We cannot just cut our way to prosperity. Making it harder for our young people to afford higher education and earn their degrees is nothing more than cutting our own future off at the knees."


Read more: http://thehill.com/video/administration/222897-obama-gop-needs-to-prevent-doubling-of-student-loan-rates

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President Obama: GOP needs to prevent doubling of student loan rates (Original Post) cal04 Apr 2012 OP
K and R goclark Apr 2012 #1
Calling loans = affording education is a joke n2doc Apr 2012 #2
Absolutely... dotymed Apr 2012 #3
I hope so, we need it davidpdx Apr 2012 #4
"In America, higher education cannot be a luxury" Buddyblazon Apr 2012 #5

n2doc

(47,953 posts)
2. Calling loans = affording education is a joke
Sat Apr 21, 2012, 08:37 AM
Apr 2012

How about promoting policies aimed at reversing the privatization of higher education? How about curbing the for profit 'universities' that provide little in exchange for hefty bills? How about grants and scholarships instead of loans?

Student loans= debt slavery

dotymed

(5,610 posts)
3. Absolutely...
Sat Apr 21, 2012, 09:44 AM
Apr 2012

Education, like health care should be a "right" in the richest country in the world. Amazingly, in most other "modern" countries, both are rights. America has been going back-wards, into serfdom, for the last 30+ years...It is past time that we turn this around, before it is too late.

davidpdx

(22,000 posts)
4. I hope so, we need it
Sat Apr 21, 2012, 09:51 AM
Apr 2012

I am a doctoral student and I've been paying my own way through school. The other day I figured out by the time I'm done with this year I'll be about $96k in the hole and by the time I finish approximately $110k.

 

Buddyblazon

(3,014 posts)
5. "In America, higher education cannot be a luxury"
Sat Apr 21, 2012, 11:59 AM
Apr 2012

That makes me mad. This is the first time I can actually say Obama has said something that straight up pisses me off. Mr. President...it ALREADY IS A LUXURY!

And for people like my wife and I who have never had money to go to college...you're signing up for something akin to a MLM scam. It was absolutely stupid for us to take out student loans to get an educaton. But what other choice to two people from lower income households have if they want an education? We were ignorant for believing the system worked for people like us. Between the two of us, we literally will never pay these off before we die.

What the fuck were we thinking trying to get ahead in today's America? Until the DC crowd decides to curb this whole "education is a lucrative business" view...it will never change.

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