Obama will make crushing college debt a little more affordable

David McNew / Getty Images

Obama will make crushing college debt a little more affordable
(Image credit: David McNew / Getty Images)

Continuing the autonomous streak he promised in his most recent State of the Union, President Obama on Monday will use his executive authority to mitigate the burden of hefty college loans. Specifically, the president will expand a 2010 law that capped the amount borrowers can be required to repay at 10 percent of their monthly income, a change estimated to impact 5 million loan-holders.

Obama is also expected to announce that the Department of Education will work with lenders to incentivize repayment over default. And though Obama says he would like to go further to make college more affordable, he'd likely need legislative action — a long shot given Washington's aversion to any substantive efforts in this election year — to do so.

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Jon Terbush

Jon Terbush is an associate editor at TheWeek.com covering politics, sports, and other things he finds interesting. He has previously written for Talking Points Memo, Raw Story, and Business Insider.