For a few months, there's been a simmering fight over student loans that wasn't expected to be one of the year's big fights. To briefly recap, Congress has until June 30 to act on student loan interest rates, or rates will double for over 7 million students, who'll face an average of $1,000 in additional debt.
The assumption has long been that policymakers would work something out before the deadline, but that deadline is just a week away, and there's no bill on the table.
Yesterday, President Obama once again spoke on the issue at the White House.
"This should be a no-brainer," Obama told a group of students gathered in the East Room. "It should not be difficult. It should've gotten done weeks ago."
So, what's the hold up? There are two competing plans, which, not surprisingly, vary based on financing. The House plan would keep student loan interest rates where they are, but pay for it by cutting access to breast cancer and cervical cancer screenings. Senate Democrats offered an alternative, paying for the lower rates by closing a tax loophole that currently allows some very wealthy people to shield some of their earnings from the payroll tax (the S-corp provision). Republicans killed the proposal with yet another filibuster.
As Laura Clawson noted yesterday, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has argued that since the House bill passed the lower chamber, and the Senate bill died, the Senate should go ahead and "pass the House bill and the president should sign it, regardless of what exactly is in the House bill."
That, of course, isn't going to happen.
What is going to happen? As of three weeks ago, House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) suggested he'd simply let interest rates go up, regardless of the consequences, but as of late yesterday, there were some hints of legislative progress.
National Journal reports that Senate Democrats believe "they are close" to working out an agreement.
"We have great hope that we can get that done," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said, citing progress made in a series of meetings over the last 48 hours. "While we're not there, we're well down the road," he added.
Leadership aides said that those meetings primarily involve Reid staffers and aides to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, is informed of the progress but his office is not a primary negotiator, GOP aides said.
Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee Chairman Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, who said he discussed the potential agreement with Reid, said a deal that prevents interest rates from doubling could be reached within days.
"We are very close," Harkin said.
Politico reported the same thing, quoting Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) saying, "I think we're very close to an agreement."
The details of the agreement are unclear, at least for now. What's more, there have been other instances in which a bipartisan agreement has come together in the Senate, only to have House Republicans announce that it's not good enough.
But as of last night, there was widespread optimism that a deal would be reached before the deadline.
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Yeah, the President should just sign anything, no matter what is in the bill!
"We'll keep student loan rates down, as long as we can kill women!"
Why does anyone take the Republicans seriously? What do they have to do to be mocked as they so rightly deserve to be?
War on women ? We have no war on women.
Then they go out of their way every day to prove well, yes they do .
That the female Republican members are not howling about this just proves that money and ideology trumps everything
They are starting to understand how much fruit has actually been eaten from the tree of knowledge by women. Are they actually afraid of us? They should be, there are very strong men who are standing by our side, real men.
sick-n-effin-tired, if you're a "real Republican" party trumps everything. If party trumps country, why wouldn't party trump gender?
Same pretty much holds true for Log Cabin Republicans and other "minority Republicans" if party trumps country, surely it trumps color, culture, sexuality, and the better interests of the poor who otherwise share any of those characteristics with you.
If Republicans could somehow shed their skin and become a new species (while still claiming to be human and want control over the bodies of other humans), they would. In a heartbeat.
That's because while they claim to be human, they are not. They share our shells, but not our souls.
You know as well as I that "educated" people are harder to lead around than sheeple! Why allow Americans access to money for college when those "snobs" just might vote democratic....
Well, yeah. Because look how well giving state funding to "Christian" schools that teach their students that "secular" college is bad and indoctrinate them in multiple-techniques for resisting any impulse to engage in critical thinking and just take everything their betters tell them on faith has worked out for them over the last three decades.
It's not a coincidence that Republican support is strongest among poor and middle class whites in regions where every Baptist Church has a school attached to it. Nor is it a coincidence that the Republican counterfactual alternate-universe bubble has grown directly in proportion with the increase in people who are taught that science is a big liberal plot to deliver their souls to Satan.
For many of us using student loans to retrain and redirect our lives after all of the losses of the last few years, raising these interest rates will be devastating. There are many of us who never qualified for unemployment and don't qualify for many of the other programs that can help a person retrain using these loans. Student loans are hard to come by these days, often for smaller amounts than what is really needed and will be difficult to pay back even without a higher interest rate. Tuition rates go up constantly, but student loan amounts continue to be for smaller amounts and often don't cover books. I hope our government will realize that student loans make a big difference in the lives of many. All most of us want is to be able to work for a wage that we can live and raise our families on.
I think there is little disagreement that keeping the loan rates low would be a good thing, the problem is that the Government is broke (continuously borrowing money) and there is much disagreement on how to pay for it.
So, the argument that Republicans want the rates to go up misses the mark.
That said, community college, living at home, plus state university and a part time job is possible for the vast majority of people. Seems cruel to put poor people further in debt instead of working with scholarships, grants, lower tuition, etc.
The government is NOT broke. It has its own currency.
Oh, why didn't we think of that before? Disgusted, you are brilliant! Let's just print more money, pay off all our debt, and give everyone a million dollars!
The sad thing is, you probably think your view is correct.
You can only imagine the obnoxious terms Democrats will agree to on this. And you won't be surprised, either; just sickened.