Will Mitt Romney Support Sooner Students or President Bush?
August 16, 2007Smooth talking Mitt Romney's presidential campaign likes to brag about using new technology like Facebook and MySpace to engage college students and has even paid students a commission to raise money for him this summer. But how much does Romney really value college students? When he arrives in Oklahoma City for today's "Ask Mitt Anything" event at the University of Oklahoma, Romney has a choice between standing up for the students in the audience or embracing President Bush's failed, special interest agenda.
Last month, Democrats in Congress passed the College Cost Reduction Act of 2007, which would help make college education more affordable for thousands of students by increasing the size of Pell grants for poor students, cutting interest rates for student loans, capping monthly loan payments at 15 percent of a student's discretionary income, and slashing subsidies for the scandal-plagued student loan industry by $19 billion. [New York Times, 7/11/07] Instead of helping expand opportunities for America's students by easing their access to higher education, President Bush threatened to veto the bill. To date, Romney has remained silent.
"Unless smooth talking Mitt Romney plans to use college students as a meaningless backdrop for a canned campaign event, he has a responsibility to tell Oklahoma students and their families whether he intends to offer a plan to make college more affordable," said Democratic National Committee spokesman Damien LaVera. "Mitt Romney has already sided with President Bush on everything from the Iraq war to health care. Now Romney has to decide whether supporting President Bush's irresponsible veto threat is more important to him than helping America's working families cope with the rising cost of a college education."
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