Leaders debate an end to college loan subsidies - Deborah Bloom, Oregon Daily Emerald

As the national debt debate rages on in Washington, policymakers are now considering a budget cut that specifically targets college students. In negotiations last week over conditions to raise the debt ceiling and reduce the national deficit, House Majority leader Eric Cantor proposed slashing federally subsidized loans to undergraduates, thereby making students pay for the interest accrued on such loans during their time in college. It’s a move that would effectively end the subsidized Stafford loan program, and save the government $40 billion over the next decade. But it would also put more financial pressure on the approximately 59 percent of undergraduates nationwide borrowing their way through college — at a time when they can least afford it.