There’s been some speculation on Romney’s “angle” on agreeing with Obama on student loan rates. What could possibly explain agreeing with a Kenyan Muslim atheist socialist usurper?
(CBS News) — House Republicans have said the estimated $6 billion annual cost of extending low-interest rates for student loans isn’t affordable without offsetting cuts but that they are still deciding whether to support a temporary extension. Obama has started pushing Congress for the extension and planned a three-state tour this week to warn students of the potential financial catastrophe they will face if Congress fails to act.Interest rates are set to double on July 1, from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent, on a popular federal loan for low- and middle-income undergraduates.
“I support extending the temporary relief on interest rates for students,” Romney said Monday, a day before five states hold primaries, though he did not offer specifics on how the extension should be paid for or how long it should last. He said he supports the extension because of “extraordinarily poor conditions in the job market.”
I think it’s pretty clear what Romney is doing here. One, he might really agree with this, two he wants to shore up his dismal standing with younger voters, and three, my guess is the real point is to loft a trial balloon as the Romney campaign considers a long anticipated turn for the center.
Surely if he wanted to improve his standing with younger voters he’d put on a backwards baseball cap & do a politically informative rap
And tomorrow, he’ll tell a conservative media outlet that he opposes extending the lower rates and always has.
Four, it’s political suicide (among other things) to not support education.
@The Lorax:
I don’t know. Santorum went pretty far opposing education.
Why would those interest rates be raised so high to begin with? Almost 7 percent is ridiculous. Aren’t interest rates at record lows right now? And weren’t student loans considered some of the safest loans around, since it’s one of the few loans that you can’t erase by filing for bankruptcy? Then why double the interest rate?
“I don’t know. Santorum went pretty far opposing education.”
How’s that working out for him then?
If Romney or Obama want to make some inroads with students they’ll pledge to support making student loans subject to declarations of bankruptcy, like any other loan.
The fact that student loans are not expendable via bankruptcy, btw, was an important undergirder to Santorum’s supposed “attack” on post-secondary education, not that I expect anyone here to appreciate that.
@vandelay:
So, it wasn’t that he thought colleges and schools were liberal indotrination factories? You know, like he had said repeatedly.
@d cwilson
One can have more than one motivation for any given action.
But leaving that, do you think that entering a post secondary institution is an advisable action to the average citizen, given the contracting labour market, and the fact that student loans are not subject to claims of bankruptcy?
Or do you think that “go to college” is universally good advice?
No, I don’t. No one path is suitable for everyone. But unlike Santorum, I don’t live in terror that if more people learned critical thinking skills, they might abandon the silly medieval superstitions that define his worldview.
I guess this is the point where you’ll bring up the lie Santorum told when he claimed that Obama said everyone should go to college.
I’ll save you the trouble. Obama never said that. Just like Santorum’s claim about euthanasia in Holland, it was a bald-faced lie.
http://www.pensitoreview.com/2012/03/04/santorum-forced-to-admit-president-never-said-everyone-should-go-to-college/
Re: Obama, why would you respond to an argument I haven’t made?
My only point here is that saying that college is not a universally desirable option is not equivalent to anti-intellectualism.
And even though I despise Santorum, I’d love to see some proof that he lives “in terror that if more people learned critical thinking skills, they might abandon the silly medieval superstitions that define his worldview.”
Like I said, I was being pre-emptive. You asked me a question that was predicated on the assumption that I did think four-year college was for everyone, which I never so much as implied. So, I decided to save you the trouble of digging out that lie and presenting it as truth.
Have you never listened to the man talk? I suffered through 12 long years of him as my senator. If anything, his views have only slid deeper into the Dark Ages since we gave him the boot.
“Have you never listened to the man talk? I suffered through 12 long years of him as my senator.”
That’s some compelling proof.
Seriously, asking for proof that Santorum has a medieval mindset is like asking for proof that fire is hot.
For someone who claims to despise the man you don’t seem to know anything about him.
I think there’s enough that is empirically known about him to warrant despising him without resorting to making claims about a “medeival mindset”.
And as proof, I will once again direct you to virtually any speech he has given in the past year. Take your pick.