Student Loans Interest Rates Double, Student Borrowers Victims Of Gridlock

As student loans interest rates double Monday, the effects of a Congress wracked by partisan maneuvering will hit one more segment of the American population — student borrowers.

On July 1, student loans interest rates will shoot from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent, in one of those rapidly approaching calamities where failure to compromise is placing Americans in the consequence crosshairs.

Like the larger fiscal cliff debate, politicians charge that the student loans interest rates calamity rapidly approaching is a result of party disconnect.

US News & World Report quotes Republican Rep. John Kline of Minnesota, chairman of the House Education and Workforce Committee, as blaming the student loans interest rates gridlock on Democrats:

Our students deserve better. We’re in this predicament because politicians put themselves in charge of setting interest rates, guaranteeing exactly this type of down-to-the-wire uncertainty for students and their families. What we need is a long-term solution that gets Washington out of the business of setting rates altogether.

As Washington wrangles over student loans interest rates with no solution in sight, students are worried that even higher payments will force many of them into a bad spot after graduation.

The economy remains in a slow recovery and college grads face a harder go of it than ever before — and University of Maryland business major Nella Lipton says the idea of heading into a soft job market is a huge worry:

” … it’s kind of sad because you hear about everybody defaulting on their loans when they graduate, but I’m just hoping that with my major, I’ll be able to get a job … They’re sort of putting the burden on a younger generation, and once we are old enough to vote and once we’re part of the economy and we … default on our loans, it’s going to be a big issue, and they’re going to regret it.”

Will you be affected by Monday’s student loans interest rates hike?