by Bruce Leshan
WASHINGTON, DC (WUSA) — Odds are if you’re not one of the 7.4-million people paying student loans in this country you know someone who is. Right now you’re paying 3.4 percent interest on your federal loans. But in less than two months, that could double to 6.8 percent — unless Congress acts.
And Senate Republicans have just blocked debate on a Democratic plan to keep the rates down. Both parties. and both House and Senate, agree keeping rates low makes sense. They just can’t agree how to pay for it.
A dozen students from the non-profit “Young Invincibles” have hit 42 cities in 4O days, hoping to mobilize college students to force a compromise through Congress that would cover the $6-billion tab to freeze the rates for another year. “Absolutely $6 billion is a lot,” says Young Invincibles leader Aaron Smith. “That’s about how much we spend on three weeks in the war in Afghanistan.”
Even for a Congress bitterly divided by party politics, the Senate debate was remarkably nasty. “What matters now for Democrats is that they find a way to drive a wedge between Republicans and a constituency the looking to court ahead of the November elections,” said Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY).
Democrats want to pay to keep student loan rates low by raising tax rates on the wealthy. Republicans want to raid a Obamacare fund for preventative health.
“Their message is they’d rather protect wealthy tax dodgers than help promising students from achieving their dreams,” said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV).
The final vote: 52 yeah and 45 nay. Too little to even start debating the bill.
The President is pushing Congress to agree to something before rates go up in July. “Congress need to keep student rates from doubling for the students who are here and across the country,” President Obama told an adoring crowd at the State University of New York in Albany.
At George Washington University here in DC, where college costs are approaching 60-thousand dollars a year, freshman Joshua Dingus is left to wonder how he’s going to pay his bills four years from now. “Even if the interest rates are high, I’m going to do what I can do. Hopefully my parents will help out somehow, someway. It’s going to be rough.”
This was the 21st time in this Congress that Senate Republicans have successfully filibustered a Democratic bill.
It’s unclear at this point when or if any plan to freeze student loans will move forward.