Obama Appeals to Youth Voters on College Costs

 　　U.S. President Barack Obama visited American college campuses on Tuesday, looking for support for his plan to hold down federal student loan rates.  The president is appealing to young voters, who overwhelmingly supported him in the 2008 election.

　　President Obama told students at the University of North Carolina at Chapel¹ Hill that he and his wife Michelle know what it is like to spend years paying off college loans.

　　"Michelle and I, we have been in your shoes," said Obama.  "Like I say, we did not come from wealthy families.  So when we graduated from college and law school, we had a mountain of debt.  When we married, we got poor together."

　　The president is calling on Congress to extend a law that cuts federal student loan interest rates to 3.4 percent.  Those rates will double if the law is allowed to expire July 1.

　　"We cannot make higher education a luxury.  It is an economic imperative².  Every American family should be able to afford it," Obama added.

　　While Obama's two-day, three-campus tour is officially a business trip, he is appealing to a core part of his voting base, in the states of North Carolina, Colorado and Iowa that could help decide this year's presidential election.

　　Obama urged students in North Carolina to use a phrase on the social media site Twitter to press U.S. lawmakers to extend the student loan interest rate cut.

　　OBAMA: "You Tweet, everybody say it, just so everybody remembers it."

　　AUDIENCE: "Don't double my rate."

　　OBAMA: "Don't double my rate.'  It's pretty straightforward³."

　　In emphasizing his personal experience, Obama drew a contrast with his likely Republican Party opponent, Mitt⁴ Romney, whose father was a wealthy auto⁵ industry executive.

　　But in an unusual move, Romney said Monday that he agrees with the president that low student loan interest rates should be extended.

　　Republican leaders in the House of Representatives say they are deciding whether to support a temporary extension.

　　The one-year extension would cost an estimated $6 billion.

　　President Obama said recently that allowing the interest rate to double would hurt more than 7 million students.

　　Student loan debt in the United States is higher than that for credit cards or automobile⁶ loans.

　　The Federal Reserve Bank of New York estimates that 15 percent of Americans, about 37 million people, owe money on student loans.  The total amount of those loans is estimated to be between $870 billion and $1 trillion.

1 chapel   

n.小教堂，殡仪馆

参考例句：

• The nimble hero,skipped into a chapel that stood near.敏捷的英雄跳进近旁的一座小教堂里。
• She was on the peak that Sunday afternoon when she played in chapel.那个星期天的下午，她在小教堂的演出，可以说是登峰造极。

2 imperative   

n.命令，需要；规则；祈使语气；adj.强制的；紧急的

参考例句：

• He always speaks in an imperative tone of voice.他老是用命令的口吻讲话。
• The events of the past few days make it imperative for her to act.过去这几天发生的事迫使她不得不立即行动。

3 straightforward   

adj.正直的，坦率的；易懂的，简单的

参考例句：

• A straightforward talk is better than a flowery speech.巧言不如直说。
• I must insist on your giving me a straightforward answer.我一定要你给我一个直截了当的回答。

4 mitt   

n.棒球手套，拳击手套，无指手套；vt.铐住，握手

参考例句：

• I gave him a baseball mitt for his birthday.为祝贺他的生日，我送给他一只棒球手套。
• Tom squeezed a mitt and a glove into the bag.汤姆把棒球手套和手套都塞进袋子里。

5 auto   

n.(=automobile)(口语)汽车

参考例句：

• Don't park your auto here.别把你的汽车停在这儿。
• The auto industry has brought many people to Detroit.汽车工业把许多人吸引到了底特律。

6 automobile   

n.汽车，机动车

参考例句：

• He is repairing the brake lever of an automobile.他正在修理汽车的刹车杆。
• The automobile slowed down to go around the curves in the road.汽车在路上转弯时放慢了速度。