Commencement May 5 at the University of Tennessee (Ashlee Culverhouse/Chattanooga Times Free Press via AP)
Senate Republicans Tuesday afternoon blocked the advancement of a Democratic bill to extend the current student loan interest rate over objections to how the measure will be funded.
Members voted 52 to 45 to block cloture on the bill, which would hold Stafford student loan interest rates for an estimated 7.4 million students at 3.4 percent instead of allowing it to double in July. The Democrats' $6 billion bill would be funded by closing a tax loophole thereby raising Social Security and Medicare payroll taxes on select wealthy stock holders of private companies--hence Republican opposition.
The vote works to Democrats' advantage, allowing them to craft a narrative that suggests Republicans oppose helping students.
"They're sending a clear message they would rather protect wealthy tax dodgers than help promising students achieve their dreams of higher education," Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Tuesday on the Senate floor prior to the vote.
But Republicans do want to extend the interest rate, and it's just as politically advantageous for them as it is for Democrats to make it a reality.
[Have student loan debt? Tell Yahoo News your story]
Republicans used their floor time Tuesday to accuse Democrats of letting politics stand in the way of real action. "Today's vote on student loan rates is a perfect example of this cynical election-year strategy in action. Rather than working with Republicans to help young people in this country weather the effects of the Obama economy, Democrats have sought to distract them from it," Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday morning.
Democrats and the White House are eager to use the issue of student loans to appeal to young voters during the 2012 election. During a speech to students at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill last month, the president shared his own student loan woes.
"Check this out, all right. I'm the president of the United States. We only finished paying off our student loans off about eight years ago," he told the audience.
The Republican-led House passed their own measure to fix the student loan interest rate on Apr. 27. That measure cut the Prevention and Public Health Fund in the president's health care law in order to pay for the extension--a decision that lead to a veto threat from President Obama and left the legislation with little hope of advancement beyond the House. Republicans have been requesting a Senate vote on the proposal.
With both sides desiring the same outcome on a very politically contentious issue, it's very possible that the student loan interest rate issue could force Congress to work together this year to reach compromise.
Absent an extension, interest rates are set to rise July 1.
More popular Yahoo! News stories:
• Obama reads Sendak's 'Where the Wild Things Are' (VIDEO)
• Rand Paul to speak at American Conservative Union conference in Chicago
• CIA reportedly thwarted new al-Qaida underwear bomb plot
Want more of our best political stories? Visit The Ticket or connect with us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, or add us on Tumblr. Handy with a camera? Join our Election 2012 Flickr group to submit your photos of the campaign in action.
[ [ [['A picture is worth a thousand words', 5]], 'http://news.yahoo.com/why-facebook-bought-instagram-4-theories-160400376.html', '[Related: Why Facebook bought Instagram: 4 theories]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['He was in shock and still strapped to his seat', 9]], 'http://contributor.yahoo.com/join/yahoonews_virginiabeach', '[Did you witness the jet crash? Share your story with Yahoo! News]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['A JetBlue flight from New York to Las Vegas', 3]], 'http://yhoo.it/GV9zpj', '[Related: View photos of the JetBlue plane in Amarillo]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['Dick Clark', 11]], 'http://news.yahoo.com/photos/dick-clark-dies-at-82-slideshow/', 'Click image to see more photos', 'http://l.yimg.com/a/p/us/news/editorial/c/21/c217c61aa2d5872244c08caa13c16ec5.jpeg', '500', ' ', 'Reuters', ], [ [['the 28-year-old neighborhood watchman who shot and killed', 15]], 'http://news.yahoo.com/photos/white-house-stays-out-of-teen-s-killing-slideshow/', 'Click image to see more photos', 'http://l.yimg.com/cv/ip/ap/default/120411/martinzimmermen.jpg', '630', ' ', 'AP', ], [ [['Titanic', 7]], 'http://news.yahoo.com/titanic-anniversary/', ' ', 'http://l.yimg.com/a/p/us/news/editorial/b/4e/b4e5ad9f00b5dfeeec2226d53e173569.jpeg', '550', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['He was in shock and still strapped to his seat', 6]], 'http://news.yahoo.com/photos/navy-jet-crashes-in-virginia-slideshow/', 'Click image to see more photos', 'http://l.yimg.com/cv/ip/ap/default/120406/jet_ap.jpg', '630', ' ', 'AP', ], [ [['xxxxxxxxxxxx', 11]], 'http://news.yahoo.com/photos/russian-grannies-win-bid-to-sing-at-eurovision-1331223625-slideshow/', 'Click image to see more photos', 'http://l.yimg.com/a/p/us/news/editorial/1/56/156d92f2760dcd3e75bcd649a8b85fcf.jpeg', '500', ' ', 'AP', ] ]
[ [ [[' the 28-year-old neighborhood watchman who shot and killed', 4]], '28924649', '0' ], [ [['because I know God protects me', 14], ['Brian Snow was at a nearby credit union', 5]], '28811216', '0' ], [ [['The state news agency RIA-Novosti quoted Rosaviatsiya', 6]], '28805461', '0' ], [ [['measure all but certain to fail in the face of bipartisan', 4]], '28771014', '0' ], [ [['matter what you do in this case', 5]], '28759848', '0' ], [ [['presume laws are constitutional', 7]], '28747556', '0' ], [ [['has destroyed 15 to 25 houses', 7]], '28744868', '0' ], [ [['short answer is yes', 7]], '28746030', '0' ], [ [['opportunity to tell the real story', 7]], '28731764', '0' ], [ [['entirely respectable way to put off the searing constitutional controversy', 7]], '28723797', '0' ], [ [['point of my campaign is that big ideas matter', 9]], '28712293', '0' ], [ [['As the standoff dragged into a second day', 7]], '28687424', '0' ], [ [['French police stepped up the search', 17]], '28667224', '0' ], [ [['Seeking to elevate his candidacy back to a general', 8]], '28660934', '0' ], [ [['The tragic story of Trayvon Martin', 4]], '28647343', '0' ], [ [['Karzai will get a chance soon to express', 8]], '28630306', '0' ], [ [['powerful storms stretching', 8]], '28493546', '0' ], [ [['basic norm that death is private', 6]], '28413590', '0' ], [ [['songwriter also saw a surge in sales for her debut album', 6]], '28413590', '1', 'Watch music videos from Whitney Houston ', 'on Yahoo! Music', 'http://music.yahoo.com' ], [ [['keyword', 99999999999999999999999]], 'videoID', '1', 'overwrite-pre-description', 'overwrite-link-string', 'overwrite-link-url' ] ]
沒有留言:
張貼留言