President Barack Obama doesn't want to just reform health care. He wants student loans to change too.
As the debate rages on for health care reform, there’s another battle that President Barack Obama and his administration are fighting.
Obama wants to reform student loans and give the government more control. For once, government control makes perfect sense.
The way student loans are run today gives students two options: borrow from a bank or borrow from the government. The high cost of tuition and the shaky economy doesn’t leave much choice for college students; it’s virtually incomprehensible that any student can make it through college without at least one loan.
Most people would scream socialism at a government take over. But companies in the private sector of student loans are pirates of the highest kind, swindling college students with unbearable interest rates and hidden fees. What seems like a small bill to enrich your life becomes an insatiable beast that will haunt you for the rest of your life.
According to a Time article last Wednesday, Democrats are expecting to save $87 billion over one decade. President Obama says he will fight lobbyists in order to make the changes necessary to reform college loan operations.
“They are gearing up for battle,” he said. “So am I.”
The argument is made that jobs will be lost and more banks will go under. But if we have learned anything from past economic fiascos, the banks will probably run themselves out of business. Why continue to give them more money when they can’t even manage the money they have now?
While government loans are much bigger than hoped, for most students, they’re more than manageable. Lower interest rates and a ten-year time period to pay them back is almost enough to convince students that going to college wasn’t too expensive or a such a waste of time. It gives enough flexibility for students to find careers and build families.
Of course, President Obama could just make college affordable enough so that no one had to take out loans for higher education. Could you imagine such a world where college isn’t unattainable for everyone in America?
But then again, seeing the government spend taxpayer money on something they wouldn’t make money off of is rarer than Kanye West not interrupting someone’s speech.
