After Obama Tears Him a New One, Boehner Lies About Raising Student Loan Rates

After President Obama ripped House Republicans for their vote to raise interest rates on student loans, John Boehner lied about what his party had passed.

Video of Obama:

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The president spoke about the House passed bill that would raise student interest rates, “I’m glad that they took action, but their bill does not meet that test. It fails to lock in low rates for students next year,” the president said. “The House bill isn’t smart, and it’s not fair. I’m glad that the House is paying attention to it, but they didn’t do it in the right way.”

Speaker John Boehner responded with a big lie about what the House passed, “Last week, the House passed legislation that would prevent student loan rates from doubling and permanently take politics out of the issue. The bill already passed by the House provides a market-based variable interest rate, mirroring what the president proposed in his own budget. The differences between the House plan and the president’s are small, and there’s no reason they cannot be overcome quickly. But today, rather than working to resolve the issue, the president resorted to a campaign stunt to try to score political points. If the president is truly unhappy with inaction, the only place to look is the Democratic-run Senate, which has taken no action to prevent rates from doubling.”

Boehner lied by leaving out the rest of the Obama plan. Like the House passed bill, Obama would also use market rates, but his plan, “guarantees these rates over the life of their loans. In the future, fixed rates would be determined each year, and the plan would ensure that borrower’s rates are in line with the government’s own cost of borrowing.”

The House passed plan contains no protections for student borrowers. In fact, it would allow lenders to reset and increase interest rates every year. The House plan also does nothing to guarantee that borrower interest rates are in line with the government’s own cost of borrowing. The House legislation is just like the Obama plan, except for the part where Obama uses rates to lower the cost of college while Republicans use rates to make higher education more expensive and less accessible.

The president was correct. The House passed bill isn’t smart. It wasn’t fair, and it was just plain wrong. What Speaker Boehner called scoring political points was really the president speaking the truth about a horrible vote that the American people should be outraged by. Beyond interest rates, this issue is about access to education. While President Obama champions accessibility, House Republicans voted to place a financial barrier in front of higher education.

Boehner’s lies and spin can’t hide the fact that House Republicans keep digging their party in deeper by constantly putting their corporate masters ahead of people. The emptiness of the Republican Party was put on display. When confronted with the truth, all John Boehner could do is respond with lies.



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