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As expected, Washington is fighting not about interest rates on student loans being frozen but about who will get the credit for it. The 2007 enacted lower rate must necessarily be extended by the Congress to avoid increase of student’s federal loan interest rate from 3.4 to 6.8 per cent. The 2007 law was enacted to lower student Stafford loan rates for the middle and lower classes.

A bid to maintain the interest rate at 3.4 per cent by the Democrats as well as Republicans failed in the Congress last month. Both parties are right in their assessment of the situation where they feel that any increase in the interest rate will be hugely detrimental for students who wish to enter college and for students who are already saddled with huge loans.

Though their assessments are right, their intentions are not straightforward. Both Republicans and Democrats are looking to garner the votes of college students by taking credit for stopping the interest rate increase proposal. Republicans are putting in all efforts to adjust the federal budget and keep the interest rate unchanged in order to shrink advantage favouring Mitt Romney.

Most Americans want their loan interest rates reverted back to 3.4 per cent. Of course, higher the rate of interest, higher will be the growth of funds for Stafford loans. If the rate doubles, college students will incur a lot of debt and this will be unimaginable especially in today’s uncertain job market. As compared to what they bargained for when they took out the student loans, graduates will start their career saddled with a huge debt and this they certainly cannot afford to.

In the larger interest of our nation, as many students as possible must reach out for college degrees. If the interest rates are doubled, we can be sure that most high school students will decide to not go to college as they cannot afford to take federal loans. As such, university education is way beyond reach for many and a lot of them are trying out alternatives such as specialized niche training and accelerated programs.

Under this disturbing situation what Republicans and Democrats are doing is to argue over taxes have to be cut and those that can be levied in order to support the Stafford program and make up the deficit that would arise from slashing interest rates. Each of them are striving to show that they did it and the other did not.

Both parties want to prove that the other was responsible for the pitiable state of seven million students. Student loan rate doubling is certainly going to have a huge financial impact and Congress is well aware of this.

Like many matters however, notwithstanding the urgency of the situation, student loan issue is constantly being pushed further as both parties wish to take credit, blame the other and make gains.

Students must analyse the situation and see if any of them deserve any credit at all. The July 1st deadline may yet pass without any action on their part and then both parties can be equally blamed.