Patch Poll: Is President Obama Right to Push Congress to Freeze Interest Rates on Student Loans?
The president pushed the issue last week at the University of Iowa.
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President Obama was in Iowa City last week pushing Congress to pass a $6 billion plan to freeze student loans at a 3.4 percent interest rate. If Congress doesn't act, the rate will rise to 6.8 percent on new loans in July, which translates to roughly a $1,000 per-student increase.
Iowa was a logical place to include on the tour. Iowa's students leave college with $30,000 in student debt, which is third highest in the nation -- and Obama 2012 will be waging war in this battleground state.
What do you think? Should Congress freeze student loans at a 3.4 percent interest rate -- at a cost of $6 billion? Vote in our poll and tell us what you think in the comments section below.
Julie Stewart Ziesman
6:44 am on Monday, April 30, 2012
When I started college in 1965, I obtained a National Defense Student Loan at 1% for 10 years. We could get a job with or without a college degree. We did not have to start our life deep in debt just to be able to enter the work world.
Chad Airhart
8:11 am on Monday, April 30, 2012
I love how this is President Obama's paln to freeze student loan interest rates. It was a Democrat Congreess that passed the bill that has them set to go up this year. And this is portrayed in the media as Obama wants to freeze the rates, and Republicans want them to go up. This is a totally manufactured "conflcit" by the President and his team to try to appeal to younger voters. Nobody in Congress wnats the rates to go up. The GOP is committed to keeping the rates as they are. It is just a matter of how do we pay for it. The rates will not go up, mark my words.
David Leonard
10:21 am on Monday, April 30, 2012
Chad, someone in your position should proofread what you write before you submit.
Everyone should, including meeeeeeeeee.
Chad Airhart
10:31 am on Monday, April 30, 2012
I have fast fingers David. I noticed the typos after I submitted it. I was hoping it wouldn't be pointed out, and along you came. :) Have a great day David.
Russell Frege
10:40 pm on Wednesday, May 2, 2012
Republicans have been driving up tuition for years by cutting state appropriations to higher education. We have to pay for tax cuts to the wealthy somehow. Now they are using the student loan bill as a way to cut funds for children's immunizations and cancer screening. How does that make any sense? We all pay more in the long run if preventative care is under funded. We need common sense long run thinking. Investment in higher ed and health care is just that. INVESTMENT. It pays off socially in the long run. Republicans need to learn to love America and Iowa enough to believe in the principle of pay it forward. Those who have benefited so much from the land of opportunity need to recognize that with opportunity comes duty and honor. As many posters have pointed out, burying our youth in loan debt is not helping our nation thrive. It is in nobody's interest. Truthfully, the federal loan program is not the real fix. We need to restore state appropriations to public universities to a level where you can pay tuition by working a summer job, like our parents did.
Pat Kessel
9:29 am on Monday, April 30, 2012
as long as the students pay them back and not think education is free
Nichole
10:21 am on Monday, April 30, 2012
I agree with the freeze of interest rates. As a person who will be paying for college for nearly the rest of my life, I would like to be able to maybe buy a house with my spouse and possibly have a child. I'm not quite ready for either but it would be nice to get the chance to save money while I pay for utilities and buy groceries. It would also be nice to still be able to go out on a date and take a vacation now and then, you know, HAVE A LIFE!!!
David Leonard
10:23 am on Monday, April 30, 2012
Loan rates should stay where they are. Students will always have to borrow money to attend college, and that's especially true now when the state is paying for a much smaller portion of the cost of a university education than they did in the past.
Lee Booton
2:36 pm on Monday, April 30, 2012
Well if we went back to the draft and had the Montgomery GI Bill again a lot of students who would serve in the US Armed Forces would not have to pay the student loans back at all.
David Leonard
4:06 pm on Monday, April 30, 2012
Lee, young people can volunteer for the military and get great education benefits.
Of course they may get sent into a needless war and get seriously wounded or killed before they can go to college.
Anne Carothers-Kay
3:58 pm on Monday, April 30, 2012
Sounds like loan rates are NOT going up, which I think everyone can agree is a good thing. I'm still trying to recover from the idea that about 25 percent of my kid's tuition at Iowa State next year is paying for scholarships and loans for others. Education is anything but free, but I think it's hard for someone who's 18 to understand what all that debt will be like to pay off!
Will Johnson
5:36 pm on Monday, April 30, 2012
Typical example of congressional/govt ineptitude. All or nothing. The rates should be increased incrementally over the next 2-3 years, saving a few billion dollars to be wasted elsewhere. And having a neglgible affect on current students over the repayment period. Maybe in three years EVERYone will be paying income tax and better understand/appreciate the concept of 'no free lunches'.
Bob Young
8:38 am on Tuesday, May 1, 2012
The idea of raising the interest rate has lots to do with building in an inflation protection for the government loan. Watching the Bush Administration spend a staggering six(6)trillion dollars without seeking funding (putting it on a credit card) one would think it normal to expect some inflation to ensue. Congress was just protecting the bankers, again. They always give gifts to the bankers; how else would they pay for their extravagant and decadent lifestyle.
Maria Houser Conzemius
8:06 am on Thursday, May 10, 2012
It makes no sense to double the interest rates on student loan debt. Americans already owe $1 trillion in student loan debt. Some think that student loan debt could blow up the economy just like the housing bubble did. In 2010, student loan debt actually surpassed credit card debt. I've been assured that student loan debt goes away if you die or go to a nursing home. It won't go away otherwise, because it's against the law to bankrupt on it.