Mitt Romney panders to youth vote, supports low student loan rates

Hello, human voters of the youth demographic. I have some nice words for you today.
(Jonathan Ernst/Reuters) Well, this will no doubt get Mitt Romney in hot water with his fellow Republicans:

"Particularly with the number of college graduates that can't find work and can only find work well beneath their skill level, I fully support the effort to extend the low interest rate on student loans," Romney said. "There was some concern that that would expire halfway through the year and I support extending the temporary relief on interest rates on students as a result of student loans obviously, in part because of the extraordinarily poor conditions in the job market."

Given that half of college graduates are unemployed or underemployed, which makes paying off those student loans all but impossible, that's a pretty good reason to keep the interest rates low on their loans, as President Obama is proposing.

But of course, since Republicans hate students and college and people who struggle to make ends meet'Rep. Virginia Foxx, for example, has "little tolerance" for those deadbeat college graduates who have student loans'the Republican Party isn't exactly in favor of such a proposal. At least, not unless they get something out of it. That's why Mike Huckabee has proposed extending the disastrous Bush tax cuts in exchange for keeping student loan rates low.

And then there's the Romney-endorsed Paul Ryan budget, which would slash the hell out of Pell grants, which currently makes college affordable for nine million students. Pell grants, by the way, happen to be one of the many programs that the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has specifically said to members of Congress must be protected and funded because of Jesus and stuff.

So even though his party has a specific plan to screw college students'a plan Mitt Romney thinks is peachy and freedomy'he's going rogue and getting behind the president's plan, and the reason is pretty clear: His deficit with voters 18-29 is just about as ugly as his deficit with women voters.

But maybe a few pretty words can fix all that for Mitt, so he's telling students their low interest rates are just the right height. And if he says just the right words, maybe it'll make that 17-point gap disappear. At least, that's what Mitt's hoping:

"I think young voters of this country have to vote for me," Romney said.

Sure they do, Mitt. Sure they do.

Tell House Republicans not to let student loan interest rates double.