If you were a politician looking to raise a paltry sum of money to make it look like you’re serious about balancing the budget, there are a number of places you might look. Wasteful farm subsidies, defense spending, and tax loopholes might all be on the table. But apparently Congress has decided that the best way to cut spending is to sock it to grad students using federal loans to pay for college.
Seriously. The Bucks Blog reports that grad students will no longer be able to receive subsidized federal student loans; these are loans that waive interest charges while students are enrolled in school. When this goes into effect, interest will begin accruing immediately. And undergraduate borrowers will also lose the interest rate discount for making on-time payments.
http://moneyland.time.com/2011/08/02/budget-deal-forces-grad-students-to-help-with-spending-cuts
