U.S. Senate Republicans Block Student Loan Rate Freeze Plan

[cali]

May 8 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. Senate Republicans blocked Democrats' proposal to cover the cost of a one-year freeze in government student loan interest rates by requiring some professional services firms to pay withholding taxes on their income.

The Senate, in a 52-45 vote with 60 required, didn't advance the plan to avert a July 1 increase in college-loan interest rates to 6.8 percent from 3.4 percent. No Republicans joined Democrats in voting to advance the measure.

"Republicans claim that they want to stop student-loan interest rates from doubling this summer," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid told reporters after the vote. "That's what they say. But Republicans showed today that it's only talk."

Republicans said they opposed the measure because they wanted a chance to offer another way to cover the $6 billion cost of the interest rate freeze.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2012/05/08/bloomberg_articlesM3PKBN6S972A01-M3PXO.DTL#ixzz1uJTTqcZL

[gateley]

1. I was wondering how they were going to spin this, and I see in your excerpt their "argument".

I can only imagine what "another way" might be.