VOA慢速英语:President Obama Presses Congress on Student Loan Interest

Student loans and the interest millions of Americans pay on them have been getting a lot of attention recently. Student loan payments and interest are a financial reality for men and women in many different kinds of jobs across the United States.
数以百万计的美国人需要偿还的助学贷款与利息最近得到了许多关注。学生偿还助学贷款和利息是美国各地就职于不同工种的男女性共同面临的财务现实。

The Department of Education says interest rates for Direct Subsidized Student Loans will double to just under seven percent on July first. Five years ago, Congress passed a measure that lowered interest rates for the government loans. But the law is set to expire.
教育部称，7月1日，直接助学贷款的利率将增加一倍，提高到接近7%。五年前，美国国会通过了一项法案，降低了政府助学贷款的利率。但该法案即将过期。

The president has called for the lower, three point four percent interest rate in his new budget. But if Congress does not act, new student borrowers will pay more. Other borrowing-related costs will also go up. The Obama administration says this will cost each student borrower an additional one thousand dollars on average.
奥巴马总统呼吁在他的新预算案中继续将利率维持在3.4%的较低水平。但是，如果国会不采取行动，新的学生借贷人将需要付出更多。其他借贷相关的成本也将上升。奥巴马政府表示，这将使得每个学生借贷人平均额外多支出1000美元。

Higher education in the United States is costly. The Department of Education says the average yearly cost of attending a public college was about twelve thousand eight hundred dollars in twenty ten. The total for private schools was over thirty-two thousand.
美国高等教育费用是昂贵的。教育部称，2010年，就读公立大学平均每年的费用约为12800美元，私立学校的总数超过32000美元。

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York collects financial information. It says Americans owed eight hundred forty-five billion dollars in student loans last year. Some reports say the amount is now near one trillion dollars.
收集财务信息的纽约联邦储备银行称，去年美国人拖欠的助学贷款达到了8450亿美元。有报道称，现在该数额已接近1万亿美元。

The administration says seven point four million students will be affected without a new law. This week, President Obama traveled to several college campuses. At the University of North Carolina, he talked about his own experience.
政府称，如果没有新法律出台，将有740万学生将受到影响。本周，奥巴马总统前往了几所大学。在北卡罗莱纳大学，他谈到了自己的经验。

BARACK OBAMA: “We didn’t 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.”
奥巴马：“我们不是来自富裕家庭。所以，当我们从大学和法学院毕业后，我们有堆积如山的债务。我俩结婚时，我们将贫困带到一起。”

Supporters of low student loan interest rates have promised a campaign to get new legislation. An extension is estimated to cost the government six billion dollars. Mitt Romney, the Republican Party’s likely presidential candidate, supports an extension. Republican leaders in the House of Representatives say they like the popular program. They just differ on how to pay for it. Republicans want the money to come from the new health care reform law.
低利率助学贷款支持者已经承诺发起运动，以便获得新的立法。延长该法案，预计政府将耗资60亿美元。共和党可能的总统候选人罗姆尼支持该法案延长。众议院共和党领导人称，他们支持这个极受欢迎的方案。他们只是对这笔钱的支出存在分歧。共和党人希望这笔钱来自新的医疗改革法案。

The Democratic Party has proposed increasing taxes on some businesses, including oil and gas companies. Last Tuesday, President Obama put his argument to music on a late-night television program.
民主党提出增加一些企业的税收，包括石油和天然气公司。上周二，奥巴马总统在一个深夜电视节目中把他的观点放进音乐里。

BARACK OBAMA: (Music Under) "Now is not the time to make school more expensive for our young people.”
奥巴马： “现在不是时候让年轻人支付更多的钱去上学。”

JIMMY FALLON: “Oh yeah.”
JIMMY FALLON: “噢”。