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Obama Camp, McCord Push Student Loan Message

Key Pennsylvania Democratic voices – including Treasurer Rob McCord – trumpeted Obama’s policies on keeping college affordable while criticizing Romney for not having a concrete plan in a conference call this afternoon.

The call came on the heels of a failed U.S. Senate vote to advance discussion of a student loan bill that would keep new subsidized loan rates from doubling (from 3.4 to 6.8 percent) come July 1.

Both state Treasurer Rob McCord and State Rep. Tony Payton (D-Phila) lauded Obama for his efforts, including policies that took banks (“the middle men”) out of the student loan business, and capped federal loan repayments at 10 percent of one’s monthly income.

The two also used the same metaphor: The clock is ticking on student loans.

“Keeping college affordable is critical,” said McCord, who said that Romney would cut $250,000 in taxes for millionaires while forcing students to pay an extra $1,000 over the lifetime of their loans when the rates doubled.

“This dangerously high cost is unacceptable.”

Rep. Payton, who graduated from Community College of Philadelphia and is currently a Temple student, said he has around $11,000 of student loans.

“I am, every month, still paying student loans. That’s the only way I was able to go to school and continue to go to school.”

Payton said Obama has made “dramatic strides” to make college more affordable while he has worked on the state level to do the same.

By contrast, he said that Romney made record cuts to higher education as Massachusetts governor, and that public university costs nearly doubled, hurting not only students, but their families who help pay the costs.

Kathryn Badillo, a graduating senior from Millersville University in Lancaster, said she made the choice to go a public university after seeing her brother struggling with $100,000-plus student loan debt from attending a private college.

Even so, Badillo said she has $25,000 debt of her own.

“The issue of student loan repayment is on my mind as I graduate this Saturday” she said.

She too said Obama took a firm stance on the issue of student loan repayment that helped not only in the short-term, but that long-term more students can get a degree.

The student loan issue has been an important election-year talking point, and the no vote in the Senate is prolonging the debate.

It comes in the context of Obama campaign efforts to reinvigorate young voters – who swung decisively in the President’s favor in 2008 – amid concerns of an enthusiasm gap this cycle.

The Romney campaign responded simply by noting that most college students and recent graduates are worse off now than they were three and a half years ago.

Said Romney spokeswoman Sarah Pompei, “Under President Obama’s leadership, young Americans are suffering from record levels of unemployment and declining career prospects.”

“President Obama and his allies will do anything to avoid talking about his failure to live up to the promises he made young voters in 2008,” she said. “Half of recent college graduates are unemployed or struggling for work. Mitt Romney has a detailed plan to get our economy working again, create jobs for recent graduates, and ensure that they do not face a debt burden created by President Obama’s overspending.”

One Response

  1. The entire argument is fallacious.

    “Obama’s policies on keeping college affordable” have been an abject failure. His policies have the exact opposite effect; they aid and abet the ever increasing costs of tuition.

    This goes back to the theory of “give them the mike” and just allow them to speak at length.

    What they say highlight is that they either a) have no understanding of economics or b) play on the public lack of curiosity or c) both

    If one is to control the cost of a good or service, you control it at the source.

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