Obama Expands IBR, Pushes Refinancing - Michael Stratford, Inside Higher Ed

Amid growing concern that outstanding student debt is hurting the economy, President Obama on Monday directed his administration to make an additional 5 million existing student loan borrowers eligible for the federal government’s most generous income-based repayment program. “We’re still seeing too big a debt load on too many young people,” Obama said, adding that “the outrage here is that they’re just doing what they’ve been told they’re supposed to do. I can’t tell you how many letters I get from people who say, 'I did everything I was supposed to and now I’m finding myself in a situation where I’ve got debts I can’t pay off.' ” The executive action will allow all federal loan borrowers, regardless of when they borrowed, to cap their monthly loan payments at 10 percent of their discretionary income and to have any remaining loan debt forgiven after 20 years. http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2014/06/10/obama-expands-income-based-repayment-older-borrowers-pushes-democrats%E2%80%99-student-loan#sthash.OgCu31ie.dpbs