Washington, D.C.– U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell made the following remarks on the Senate floor Thursday regarding the need for the President to respond to bipartisan solutions proposed by Congressional Republicans to prevent the increase in student loan rates:
“Three weeks ago today, Republican leaders in the Senate joined Republican leaders in the House in calling on the President to resolve a pending increase in student loan rates. Drawing on some of the President’s own ideas, we proposed multiple good-faith solutions to this problem before it’s too late.
“And we have been waiting ever since for the President’s response. He’s missing in action. He has yet to offer a concrete solution.
“So you can understand our surprise upon learning this morning that the President plans to call on Congress later today to do something about student loan rates.
“The Republican-led House of Representatives has acted.
“They already passed a bill that would solve this problem.
“And, as I said, Republican leaders in the Senate have been on record supporting multiple good faith solutions to this problem for weeks.
“It is the Democrat-led Senate that has failed to act, and the President who has failed to contribute to a solution.
“And the reason is obvious.
“It was reported yesterday that the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is launching a web site with a student loan countdown clock aimed at raising money off this issue. The implication is that Republicans are the ones dragging their feet.
“As for the President, well, this is just another sad example of his election-year strategy of deflection and distraction.
“College graduates are struggling to find work and pay their bills in the Obama economy. He’d like them to believe it’s someone else’s fault.
“Latinos are struggling with high unemployment. He’d like them to think Republicans are the problem.
“Middle class moms are struggling to make ends meets. He wants them to think we’re engaged in some phony war on women.
“The President doesn’t have a positive message to send any of these folks, so he’s cooking up false controversies to distract them from his own failure to turn the economy around.
“Well, on the student loan issue, we could solve this problem in a sitting. Republicans have acted quickly, and on a bipartisan basis, to help prevent these rates from going up. We’ve passed a bill out of the House. We’ve reached out to the President. We’ve proposed multiple good-faith solutions.
“The only reason this issue isn’t already resolved — the only reason — is that the President wants to keep it alive. He thinks it benefits him politically for college students to believe we’re the problem.
“It’s time to stop the games.
“It’s time for the President to act.”