Obama pushes low-rate student loans, wooing young

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP-Excite

By BEN FELLER

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (AP) - President Barack Obama went after the college vote Tuesday, pitching cheaper student loans as he courted the one age group where he has a decided advantage over Republican rival Mitt Romney. The twist? Romney, too, has endorsed the idea, though it's unclear whether deficit-leery Republicans in Congress will go along.

In the race for the White House, both the Obama and Romney campaigns see huge opportunities to court younger voters. This week, their efforts are focused on the millions of students - and their parents - who are grappling with college costs at a time when such debt has grown so staggering it exceeds the totals for credit cards or auto loans.

Trying to make it personal, Obama told students at the University of North Carolina 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 just get a policy briefing on this," Obama said. "We didn't come from wealthy families. When we graduated from college and law school, we had a mountain of debt. When we married, we got poor together."

Read more: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20120425/D9UBJUHG1.html

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President Barack Obama speaks at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Tuesday, April 24, 2012. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

[DJ13]

1. K&R

Now about those credit card rates.......

[Deep13]

2. If he really wants to knock their socks off, stop talking about loans...

...and start talking about grants and debt forgiveness.

[riderinthestorm]

16. +1000000. He'd get 100% of the student vote if he'd do the right thing

and focus on debt forgiveness, ramping up grant programs, and providing more funding for state colleges and universities.

[lovuian]

3. Low interest loans are a good idea

as well as debt forgiveness

the whole point is the Young are strapped with loans for their education
which means they can't buy anything

[MrTriumph]

4. With Main Street & the jobs Main Street could create is not addressed, O's a poser.

Hey, most of the young people I know couldn't care less if O is reelected. They simply don't see him as fighting for them. Too many are not employed or are under-employed. And their path won't include Harvard or Wall Street.

[emulatorloo]

7. Then I am sure they'll love poser Mitt Romney, he says he'll fix the economy.

Sorry, young people are not that dumb

[MrTriumph]

11. The point is they just won't vote. Now you tell me who that helps.

The point is they just won't vote. Now you tell me who that helps.

[emulatorloo]

13. They may not vote in 08 levels.

But I think a lot will come out. I'm in a college town, students seem to get it here.

[LACarMan]

5. Maybe the President should rec a 0% loan w/ penalty on late payment.

That way when the student racks up 80K (x2 if they are out of state) in debt and face a 50% chance of not being employed, they can at least keep track of the bill in their post box. Miss a payment by 90 days? Oops!, they can sit at home and break out that financial calculator they made you buy your 2nd year and blog poetic about it. If it hasn't been pawned by now.

[justgamma]

6. Hate the headline.

Would they ever print one that says "Republicans woo the rich by pushing big tax cuts for them"? No, they wouldn't.

Maybe Obama is doing it because it's the right thing to do.

[emulatorloo]

8. That's how the AP does things.

[freshwest]

9. That's exactly what I was going to say! Thanks! Occupy should use that!

"GOP woos US CoC, ALEC and Koch Brothers in bid to gain the Presidency."

Tell the truth, somebody, please!

[unc70]

10. I'm in Chapel Hill. Not as idealistic, but the young I know will still vote Obama

As some of you might remember, Obama was among my least favorite of the Democratic primary candidates in 2008. To me, he seemed too closely allied with the corporatist "centrist" wing of the Democratic (health care and insurance, coal, banking and "speculation", expansive foreign policy, market economics, etc.) and with way too many of the entrenched powers.

Unlike many who voted for Obama, I had few illusions. He was not a liberal, not a progressive, and certainly not a "socialist". But I never had any thoughts of voting for anyone except the Democratic nominee. Period. Was surprised when some here called me a PUMA. We worked our tails off here in 2008 in NC and elsewhere, and Obama and Democratic candidates in general just barely eked out victories in NC. With Obama and the large Democratic majorities in the US House and Senate, with Democrats mostly in control in NC, even I was encouraged at our prospects those next two years. WRONG.

Like many Duers, even most, I was disappointed that Dems and Repubs alike put in charge of solving the financial crises where many of the very same people who caused it, profited by the collapse and again during the bailout, while diverting attention and culpability away from themselves and towards almost everyone else.

Even more frustrating for me was how health care reform was deliberately mishandled. It began with Obama taking single payer off the table. Then hanging nearly everyone at DU and most progressives and other Dems out to twist in the wind, delaying Congressional votes until after the 2010 election while few of us could imagine that the RW would be proved right much too often (e.g. individual mandate). On a bad day, I almost start believing those who rationalized the losses in 2010 as making it easier for Obama to run against a Republican Congress. Whatever the causes, that election certainly screwed up things here in NC. It is true in NC and nationally that the GOP has really motivated the great majority of women to vote against every Republican candidate.

But I and almost everyone else who voted for Obama in 2008 really have no alternative but to vote for Obama again and hope for the best. I do not know anyone personally who voted for Obama in 2008 who is not planning to do the same this year.

BTW The AP and others are dutifully copying the meme about the "youth vote problem for Obama". Lead story on AP, for example.

[FarCenter]

12. Student loans -- the modern version of the company store

The educational/financial complex's way of putting students permanently into non-dischargeable debt so that they lose their freedom and have to take any damn job they can get.

[emulatorloo]

14. College would be cheaper if Republicans stopped defunding State Universities

Public education is under attack by Republican Governors and legislators.

[FarCenter]

15. The reason they can defund them is that the universities are getting funded through student loans

The university aid offices are doing what the mortgage brokers were doing back in 2006 -- putting unsuitable borrowers into unsuitable debt.

In return, the universities can raise tuition faster than the consumer price index in order to replace state funding.

Otherwise, they would have to trim student body size or reduce costs, and the effects of the defunding would become visible to the voters.

It's just another Republican tactic for avoiding taxes by increasing debt.

[emulatorloo]

19. Univs in Iowa are slashing budgets, enlarging class sizes, etc

And relying more and more on out of state and foreign tuition dollars to try to make ends meet. Academics is suffering. Republicans are sucessfully demonizing college professors and higher education in general as elitist and full of communists who are corrupting our youth.

[FarCenter]

21. Maybe they could go to 3-years for the Bachelor's degree

They should be able to fit 3 fifteen-week semesters into a calendar year, so that students could graduate in 2 and 2/3 years.

This would allow them to bring class sizes down.

[dixiegrrrrl]

22. Good on you for pointing this out!!!!

[Egalitarian Thug]

17. Why is there any interest charge at all? Isn't it enough that these kids

(and adults) are going to be saddled with interminable debt? Where the law that says interest must be charged?

[ParkieDem]

18. Great ...

... sounds just like those low-interest home loans everybody was talking about a few years ago.

Either way, people aren't going to have money to pay off loans, regardless of the interest rate, unless there are JOBS available that pay a decent wage.

[emulatorloo]

20. Tell the Republicans to stop sabotaging the economy