Monday, July 01, 2013

Stafford student loan rate doubles despite House action

The interest rate for US Stafford student loans doubled Monday. The US House of Representatives passed a bill last week that would reduce the increase. The Senate did nothing.

Monday, July 1, Stafford loans go from 3.4% to 6.8%, set by a bill when the Democrats controlled Congress in 2007. The change was supposed to take effect last year, but was delayed one year.

The House passed H.R. 1911 that would set the rate at the 10-year US Treasury bill rate plus 2.5%. It's a good idea to base the rate on a real-world, market interest rate. And they capped the interest rate at 8.5%. Today the 10-year T-bill is 2.33%, so the Stafford loan rate would be 5.83%.

Is 5.83% too high? Ask your powerful Senators why they did nothing. Oh, they started talking Monday when it was too late. Seattle Times. But why did they sit on their hands last week?

BTW Obama threatened to veto the house bill because...

USA Today

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