Press Gaggle by Press Secretary Jay Carney Aboard Air Force One, 4/24/12

The White House

Office of the Press Secretary

Aboard Air Force One
En Route North Carolina

11:30 A.M. EDT

MR. CARNEY:  I have no announcements to make at the top except to welcome you on Air Force One today as we make our way to North Carolina for our first stop on a two-day, three-stop college tour, where the President will — on which the President will discuss the vital importance that Congress follow his lead and decide to not allow interest rates to double for student loans, as they will for 7.4 million young Americans on July 1st.

With that, I’ll take your questions.

Q    Jay, I have two quick questions on the student loans.  It seems the debate on the Hill is more about how to pay to extend these than actually whether to extend the rates.  So who is the President trying to convince?

MR. CARNEY:  Well, there’s a couple of things here.  First of all, we welcome any support that is out there for the idea that we need to take action to make sure that these interest rates do not double.  It is certainly welcome, although ironic, that those who fervently support the Ryan budget, which would double interest rates for student loans, some of whom now say they want to not have that happen.

Obviously how we pay for it is important.  We absolutely believe it ought to be paid for.  There are a number of alternatives for pay-fors that exist in the President’s budget proposal.  And I know that that’s being discussed on the Hill and we are discussing it with the Hill.

The fact of the matter is this needs to get done.  As we’ve said all year long, when there are opportunities for bipartisan action on things that will help the economy or help, in this case, students prepare themselves to enter the economy, we are glad to see it.  And we continue to believe that there are opportunities like this out there despite the fact that it’s an election year.

Q    Do you think that Romney’s support for this extension influences the debate at all?

MR. CARNEY:  Well,

You can read the rest of this article at:: http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2012/04/24/press-gaggle-press-secretary-jay-carney-aboard-air-force-one-42412

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Posted by RobertButler on Apr 24 2012. Filed under Barack Obama. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry