国际英语新闻:Obama Urges Congress to Extend Law on College Loans

U.S. President Barack Obama is urging Congress to extend a law set to expire in July that would prevent interest rates on student loans from doubling.

Obama said in his weekly Internet and radio address Saturday, "In America, higher education cannot be a luxury. It's an economic imperative that every family must be able to afford."

The president says making it difficult for young people to afford a college education is nothing more than "cutting our own future off at the knees."  President Obama will take his message of affordable higher education to university campuses in the key electoral states of North Carolina, Iowa, and Colorado this week.

While Obama looks for ways to help middle class college students, Republicans used their weekly commentary to attack the president's energy policy and economic agenda.

Senator Roy Blunt of Missouri says the president should be focused on generating jobs, and he should stop blocking a oil pipeline project from Canada, through the United States to the Gulf of Mexico.

Blunt said the oil pipeline would create thousands of U.S. jobs and help reduce our demand for foreign oil.