The Republicans and Democrats are fighting over whether to keep the pay-back rate for student loans at 3.4%. The interest rates on some student loans officially went up to 6.8% after the Senate failed to reach a compromise by the July 1 deadline.

Low interest rates are an incentive for young people to apply for these loans that they don’t have to start paying off until they graduate. This is not the real world.

Like so much of what goes on in Washington, the student loan and grant programs are another government-manufactured problem that was initially designed to create more Democrat voters. Republicans voted for the programs because the Democrats would have depicted them as “enemies of the poor.”

“How could the Republicans deny these poor teenagers, many of them from poor families, from getting inexpensive college loans?”

I can almost guarantee that most Republicans support these grant and loan programs. Most Republicans are getting education at a discount when they send their children to government (public) schools — K-12. Other people are paying for their children’s education. It’s the American way! Why not continue the socialism through college?

Some will object that these are loans; they’re not giveaways. They have to be paid back. What gives the government the right to guarantee loans with money it does not have? The guarantee is based on what taxpayers have paid.

If you want your kids to go to college, make them pay for it. Do what families used to do: save, make their kids work, take a longer time to graduate, pay as you go.

Government-backed loans and federal money pouring into education are increasing the cost of a college education in the same way that money given to unwed mothers increases the number of unwed mothers.

Wouldn’t it be great if you and I could force people to give up some of their money so they could loan it to us? It might be great in terms of politics, but it’s still immoral.

“In the Direct Loan program, the money being loaned is appropriated by Congress and comes directly from the Department of Education. The loans are administered by school financial aid offices.”

What’s the definition of “appropriated”?: “Take (something) for one’s own use, typically without the owner’s permission.”

It’s OK to “appropriate” other people’s money if we elected other people to do it. Somehow it doesn’t sound so bad when someone else is doing the appropriating.

Many young people who took out loans are now beholden to the State. They have so much debt that they may not be able to pay it back for decades. They’ve become wards of the State, slaves to the lender for life (Prov. 22:7).

A politician’s dream.