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LOS ANGELES, May 8 -- The U.S. Senate Republicans and Democratsfailed to reach comprise on Tuesday on a White House-backed bill toextend low interest rates for college student loans, dashing hopesof more than 7 million students nationwide to have lesser debtburdens. Rising student debt has been a hot issue in the United States inrecent years, and the situation turns especially tense this year asthe interest rate of the loan is to double in July. In the wake of the Senate failure, observers believe it's notlikely to find a solution soon as the two parties' battle forsupport in an election year. More than 7.4 million U.S. college students have borrowedsubsidized federal Stafford loans. They will see their interestrates double in July from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent unless theU.S. Congress takes measures to keep them down. According to a press release from the White House, Americans nowowe about 1 trillion U.S. dollars in student loans, and in 2010such debt surpassed credit card debt for the first time. Meanwhile, the U.S. Institute for College Access and Success putsthe national average for student loan debt at 25,250 dollars for2010 graduates. U.S. President Barack Obama, who relied heavily on young voters towin his election four years ago, has been trying to write anothercheck to get their support for reelection: freeze the student loaninterest. But that is a big check: the U.S. government will bear a loss of 6billion dollars for a one-year freeze. In the election year,neither Democrats nor Republicans want to offend those youngstudents. What's at issue is where to get the money at a time whenthe U.S. government is in huge deficit. During the Tuesday session, Republicans said they did want tofreeze the interest of subsidized Stafford loans to 3.4 percentfrom 6.8 percent, but they oppose the Democrats' proposal to payfor a one-year extension by changing tax law that currently allowssome wealthy taxpayers to avoid paying Social Security and Medicaretaxes by classifying their pay as dividends, not cash income. The Republicans propose cutting funds from the 2010 Prevention andPublic Health Fund. But the White House said in a press releasethat President Obama opposes any cut of funds from Public HealthFund. As the Congress tries to seek a solution to the issue, politiciansare also on the move at a local level. In the state of California, which is home to many prestigiousuniversities and colleges, Speaker of State Assembly John Perezrecently introduced the Middle Class Scholarship Act, which wouldreduce tuition by more than 60 percent for students who are notapproved for Cal Grants in the state, but whose family annualincome is less than 150,000 dollars. If the bill becomes law, for the California State University system(CSU), approximately 150,000 students will receive the Middle ClassScholarship and save over 4,000 dollars every year. At the University of California (UC) system, about 42,000 studentswill receive the Middle Class Scholarship and save up to 8,169dollars per year. Despite the ongoing efforts by Obama, the Congress and the localgovernments to freeze student loan interest or reduce tuition, theOccupy movement is calling for free high education for allAmericans attending public universities and colleges in thecountry. According to its website, the Occupy student debt campaign claimsthat free education for students enrolled at public colleges anduniversities is the "single, largest step we could take toalleviate future student loan debt." In the case of systems in California and New York that wereformerly free, this would be a restoration of the status quo, thewebsite said. The website cites data from the U.S. Department of Education,saying the cost of covering tuition at all two- and four-yearcolleges and universities in the United States would be about 70billion dollars. It also goes further by saying that a recent audit found that thePentagon "wastes" this sum in unaccountable spending every year andending the Bush tax cuts (80 billion dollars annually) would alsoeasily cover this cost, according to the website. Students in California are also putting up an initiative that wouldmake four years of state university free for all full-time,in-state students who maintain at least a 2.7 GPA (Grade PointAverage) or do 70 hours of community service a year. The e-commerce company in China offers quality products such as 4x4 Recovery Winch Manufacturer , China Marine Electric Winch, and more. For more , please visit Heavy Duty Electric Winches today!
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