Obama is running around the country confusing the American people, misleading us about what will happen if Congress doesn't act on student loans before July 1st.
He's encouraging the people to rise up, take to Twitter, and tweet with the hashtag #DontDoubleMyRate.
The White House keeps retweeting what people are writing. At this point, it's spam.
Obama hasn't been clear AT ALL. It appears that he's intentionally trying to frighten people. I thought we were finished with the "politics of fear." I thought that was so last administration. Obviously, not.
From the Brookings Institute:
April 25, 2012 —
Today President Obama is visiting the University of Iowa on the last day of a three-state tour promoting his proposal to keep the interest rate on new subsidized federal student loans at 3.4%. The rate will revert to 6.8% in July if Congress does not extend the temporary rate reduction that was enacted in 2007.
This proposal is likely to garner support from college-age voters as well as former college students—both graduates and dropouts—currently paying off their student loans. But the latter group may not know that the interest rate on their federal loans will not be affected by Obama’s proposal because it only applies to new loans.
...[T]he type of loans affected by the president’s proposal—new subsidized loans—do not accumulate interest until after students leave college. So a student struggling to afford college would not get any relief now—they would just face somewhat lower loan payments down the road.
There is no doubt that many college students and their families are being squeezed by rising college costs. And there are good reasons for the federal government to provide financial assistance to help low-income students afford college. But charging below-market interest rates on student loans is an inefficient and likely ineffective way to encourage college enrollment and completion because students don’t pay any interest until after they leave college.
Some degree of pandering to various groups of voters is to be expected in any presidential election year. But President Obama could focus his pitch to college students on his other, more significant proposals aimed at reducing college costs. In particular, the president’s proposal to provide prospective college students with much better information about institutions of higher learning—including their graduation rates and the earnings of their graduates—has the potential to force colleges to compete on quality and price rather than on amenities that drive up costs.
Obama's proposal, what he was hyping yesterday at the University of North Carolina and on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon from Chapel Hill last night, does NOT apply to the students he claimed he would be helping.
The proposal refers to NEW loans, those not yet made.
The White House retweets the stuff people currently paying off their student loans are writing. Team Obama is doing nothing to inform all these people that they will not be affected AT ALL. Their rates are not going to change on July 1st.
What BS! How dishonest!
Tell the truth, Obama.
Good grief.
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