Doubling the Interest

There is a big debate concerning the interest rate doubling for college students starting July 1, 2012.  The interest rate will go from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent on subsidized Stafford loans unless Congress extends the temporary rate reduction.  The reduction was put into place when George W. Bush was president in 2007, but it was approved by bipartisan.

President Barack Obama, and his presumed opponent in this year's election, Mitt Romney, does not agree with Congress in allowing this interest rate to revert back to 6.8 percent.   Although I am currently in college, I have to disagree with Obama and Romney.

The interest rate is not the real problem.  What the government should be focusing on and getting under control is the consistently rising cost of tuition.  According to the National Center for Education Statistics, "between 1999-2000 and 2009-10, prices for undergraduate tuition, room, and board at public institutions rose 37 percent, and prices at private institutions rose 25 percent, after adjustment for inflation."  Obama should be focusing his attention and sense of urgency on the acceleration of these numbers instead of the interest rate.

The College Student Relief Act of 2007 was made to expire in 2012 due to the $6 billion annual cost to leave it at 3.4 percent.  The student loan debt is estimated at $1 trillion, exceeding the debt of credit card loan and auto-loan debt.  If student loans were not paid, taking into account the delicate state of our country, we could possibly slip into the "second coming" of the housing crash we experienced in 2008.  The focus needs to be lowering college tuition to an amount where 6.8 percent college loans are affordable.

Although I disagree with President Obama on this matter, I fully respect the intestinal fortitude he displayed on stage with Jimmy Fallon.

Second-hand Cancer

Alison wrote an article, Smoke And Mirrors, on the ban against smoking on college campuses in Texas.  I believe Alison wrote this article for other college students who are enjoying the freedoms of college life.  As much as I appreciate Alison's drive for individual rights for Texans, I do not agree with her statements declaring there is no concrete evidence that second-hand smoke causes cancer.  Also, I do not agree with her frustration for smoke-free college campuses.

I was a smoker for 10 years, but I am ecstatic that the state has decided to put everyone's health before a smoker's convenience and made all campuses smoke-free environments.  Alison quotes and links an article stating, "Anyone can get lung cancer", which I completely agree with.  There are many different causes of  lung cancer, but to make it seem as though smoking does not have much to do with it seems careless.  The same article she quoted says, "Avoiding tobacco use remains at the top of the prevention list.  If you don't smoke, don't start.  If you do smoke, quit."  Avoiding tobacco is at the top of the list for a reason, and for non-smokers to completely avoid it we cannot allow smokers to puff away wherever they please.  The same article does state that 65% of new diagnoses to lung cancer patients did not smoke when diagnosed, but it also said "or quit decades ago" which means they did at one time.  Additionally, the article doesn't say anything about whether or not the 65% were exposed to second-hand smoke, but it does insist to "stay away from secondhand smoke".  

According to the European Respiratory Society, the tobacco industry has been trying to cover up and downplay the effects of second-hand smoke for quite some time.  In the 1970s, most of the research done on the affects of smoking and passive smoking (aka second-hand smoke) was funded by the tobacco industry.  "However, when the first conclusive studies started to provide decisive evidence that non-smokers' exposure to tobacco smoke significantly increases the risk of respiratory and cardiovascular disease, the industry abruptly escalated its attacks, mobilizing all its firepower against the research and the scientist who had conducted it."

Due to these reasons, I have to disagree with Alison and side with the state that creating a smoke-free environment at all college campuses is a brilliant way to keep Texans healthier.