President Obama's trip to California and Colorado, as well as the news that the Administration intends to announce new student loan assistance today, received coverage from all three networks last night, though only the CBS Evening News led with a segment mentioning the President -- and that mention was in the context of a report on the Occupy Wall St. protests. The Administration's student loan help is receiving generally positive coverage, with most news outlets emphasizing the enormous increase in total student loan debt in the last decade. Last night and this morning, the student loan initiative, along with the mortgage refinance assistance announced Monday, is described as having been made necessary by Congressional Republicans' unwillingness to back the President's agenda.
NBC Nightly News reported, "For the second consecutive day President Obama is using his executive power to, as he says, help those that are struggling with this economy. Yesterday it was underwater mortgages. Today it's student loans." The AP says the President's job creation proposals have been "blocked by congressional Republicans...determined to show action as he seeks re-election," and Chris Matthews, on MSNBC's Hardball, said the President "wants to show a positive face of what he can do without a nasty do-nothing Congress, and, at the same time, let everybody know that they are a do-nothing Congress."
NBC Nightly News (10/25, story 4, 1:40, Welker, 8.37M) reported, "For the second consecutive day President Obama is using his executive power to, as he says, help those that are struggling with this economy. Yesterday it was underwater mortgages. Today it's student loans. According to White House officials, new graduate loan payments could be capped at 10% of the graduate's salary, and they say graduates could consolidate their loan payments at lower interest rates."
The New York Times (10/26, Lewin, Subscription Publication, 950K) reports that "Melody Barnes, director of the Domestic Policy Council, said the president would use his executive authority to expand the existing income-based repayment program with a 'Pay as You Earn' option that would allow graduates to pay 10 percent of their discretionary income for 20 years, and have the rest of their federal student loan debt forgiven. ... Most of the 450,000 low-income student-loan borrowers currently enrolled in income-based payment must pay 15 percent of their discretionary income for 25 years before having their debt forgiven, although terms are easier for those in public service." The Times adds that speaking at the press conference, Education Secretary Arne Duncan "estimated that the debt-consolidation program could help six million borrowers who carry both direct federal loans and loans made under the Federal Family Education Loan program, which ended last year. ... Between January and June, Mr. Duncan said, borrowers making payments on both kinds of loans can consolidate them and get a half-percent interest-rate cut."
Reuters (10/26, Bull) quotes Education Secretary Arne Duncan as saying, "College graduates are entering one of the toughest job markets in recent memory, and we have a way to help them save money by consolidating their debt and capping their loan payments."
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