English 中文网 漫画网 爱新闻iNews 翻译论坛
中国网站品牌栏目(频道)
当前位置: Language Tips > Special Speed News VOA慢速

President Obama presses congress on student loan interest

[ 2012-05-18 15:52]     字号 [] [] []  
免费订阅30天China Daily双语新闻手机报:移动用户编辑短信CD至106580009009

President Obama presses congress on student loan interest

This is the VOA Special English Economics Report.

Student loans and the interest millions of Americans pay on them have been getting a lot of attention recently. Student loan payments and interest are a financial reality for men and women in many different kinds of jobs across the United States.

The Department of Education says interest rates for Direct Subsidized Student Loans will double to just under seven percent on July 1st. Five years ago, Congress passed a measure that lowered interest rates for the government loans. But the law is set to expire.

The president has called for the lower, 3.4 percent interest rate in his new budget. But if Congress does not act, new student borrowers will pay more. Other borrowing-related costs will also go up. The Obama administration says this will cost each student borrower an additional 1,000 dollars on average.

Higher education in the United States is costly. The Department of Education says the average yearly cost of attending a public college was about 12,800 dollars in twenty ten. The total for private schools was over 32,000.

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York collects financial information. It says Americans owed 845 billion dollars in student loans last year. Some reports say the amount is now near one trillion dollars.

The administration says 7.4 million students will be affected without a new law. This week, President Obama traveled to several college campuses. At the University of North Carolina, he talked about his own experience.

BARACK OBAMA: "We didn't come from wealthy families. So when we graduated from college and law school, we had a mountain of debt. When we married, we got poor together."

Supporters of low student loan interest rates have promised a campaign to get new legislation. An extension is estimated to cost the government six billion dollars. Mitt Romney, the Republican Party's likely presidential candidate, supports an extension. Republican leaders in the House of Representatives say they like the popular program. They just differ on how to pay for it. Republicans want the money to come from the new health care reform law.

The Democratic Party has proposed increasing taxes on some businesses, including oil and gas companies. Last Tuesday, President Obama put his argument to music on a late-night television program.

BARACK OBAMA: (Music Under) "Now is not the time to make school more expensive for our young people."

JIMMY FALLON: "Oh yeah."

And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report. I'm June Simms.

Related stories:

College students get into microfinance lending

Virginia college proactively manages student loan debt

New US law cuts out private lenders for student loans

Higher education in US: what does it cost?

(来源:VOA 编辑:旭燕)

 
中国日报网英语点津版权说明:凡注明来源为“中国日报网英语点津:XXX(署名)”的原创作品,除与中国日报网签署英语点津内容授权协议的网站外,其他任何网站或单位未经允许不得非法盗链、转载和使用,违者必究。如需使用,请与010-84883631联系;凡本网注明“来源:XXX(非英语点津)”的作品,均转载自其它媒体,目的在于传播更多信息,其他媒体如需转载,请与稿件来源方联系,如产生任何问题与本网无关;本网所发布的歌曲、电影片段,版权归原作者所有,仅供学习与研究,如果侵权,请提供版权证明,以便尽快删除。
 

关注和订阅

人气排行

翻译服务

中国日报网翻译工作室

我们提供:媒体、文化、财经法律等专业领域的中英互译服务
电话:010-84883468
邮件:translate@chinadaily.com.cn