Everyone knows the cost of tuition has steadily been rising, so it is unsurprising that recently, Obama announced plans to help reduce the burden of student loan debts for young people. Unfortunately, his plan is nothing but empty rhetoric and can only be viewed as a ploy to entice young people to come out in droves and support the president the same way they did in 2008.
His plan (done through executive orders and ignoring Congress, may I add) includes a provision for more government loans for students, which he touts as having the potential to lower interest rates by up to 0.5 percent. Sounds good, right? Wrong. Studies of the potential impact have shown that even if a student found himself $100,000 in debt, his monthly payments would only be cut by around $28 a month. This is hardly a game-changing statistic, and it sure isn't going to cause an economic rebound for young people. If your student loan debt falls within the average of around $27,000, you are likely to save as little as $4.50 a month in payments.
This is hardly something "we can't wait" for. It is disappointing but unsurprising to see the president offer more rhetoric and plans that simply sound too good to be true. Instead of creating an environment where recent college graduates are able to seek and gain employment, the president has strapped our generation with trillions more in debt.
This is hardly something that I would like to pay for, and young people should consider this, and not the president's promises, when they head to the polls in 2012.
— Chris Buki, fourth-year political science