EDITORIAL: Tell Congress to act on student loans
If there's one thing Congress has done well over the past several years, it's been waiting until the last possible minute to address pressing issues facing the country.
It's now facing another one of those issues: Subsidized student loan rates are set to double from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent beginning Monday unless congressional Democrats and Republicans can come to an agreement to avert the increase.
If the prospect of both parties working together makes you uneasy about the future of your student loans, we don't blame you. After all, just about the only other thing Congress has done well since 2011 is arguing relentlessly for ages before ultimately doing nothing.
It is inexcusable that our elected leaders have continued to push off this loan rate spike for months on end. After all, student loan rates, along with the rapidly expanding loan debt bubble that many economists argue is the next big threat to the American economy, were one of the key issues in last year's presidential election.
And both parties, more or less, agree that student loan rates should not spike in a week. Both the House Republican plan and the plan put forward by President Barack Obama tie rates to the yield of 10-year Treasury bonds, with differences lying in the details.
While the plans are not necessarily ideal, they should be seen as progress. After all, the parties' plans are close and only some of the details need to be worked out.
Yet, virtually no progress has been made on the issue over the past several weeks. To say it is disheartening that our lawmakers do not see the loan rate increase as a priority is an understatement, but it is not too surprising.
Lawmakers are in the midst of a heated debate over immigration reform and other pressing issues, and an issue that affects college students, who do not show up to the polls in the same numbers as older voters do, simply does not demand the attention that it should.
Only students have the power to change that.
Over the next several days, write and call to your representative (If you live in Mount Pleasant, that would be Rep. Dave Camp, R-Midland.) and senators (in Michigan, Democratic Sens. Carl Levin and Debbie Stabenow). Make your voices heard, and lawmakers will have no choice but to listen. That's the only way our democracy can properly function.
Time and time again throughout our history, Congress has been forced to act on an issue by the people they represent because they make it known that they want to see action. Make that the case this week.
