The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer

move sass ms ba

ba pa good evening under more on the newshour tonight a regional commentators look at the fallout from the kathleen willey story charles krauss interviews the prime minister of ireland poet laureate robert pinsky recite a st patrick's day palm and we get two views on how much to charge for student loans at all follows a summer in the news this tuesday i wrote to an atm fee to the world is the biggest challenge of the new century because by the time the baby is old enough to vote the world will have nearly two billion last month into the world there's a landline north life there the company that was built with integrity and humanity and strike these are the values that have made in your life to the company

you keep and by the corporation for public broadcasting and by the annual financial support from viewers like you president clinton spent the st patrick's day working on peace for northern iraq he said there was a chance of a lifetime it could be itchy he met with leaders of catholics who want the north to join the republic of ireland and protestants who want to stay under british rule he also spoke at the white house with irish prime minister bertie ahern and presented mr clifton with the traditional role of shamrocks and praised him for his role in the piece every president and then urge all sides to make the tough choices no one will be a loser if agreement is reached everyone will benefit from a chance to build a peaceful future the parties must look at the larger pitcher for the ultimate goal for all free of cowardly acts of violence free of the division inspire that it brought to many children of their futures for too long the president

met last night with gerry adams the head sharon fein the political wing of the catholic irish republican army he spoke to reporters today at the national press club say negotiations in the next few weeks would be delicate the most difficult part of the process which in the end is in this process and the democratic big fears in this process to buy and not to mention family will persist what are all these drugs that all of our commitment to the process of the last ottoman called limits and a prominent terrible place for all people david trimble the leader of northern ireland's protestant pollster unionist party also spoke at the press club in washington he said he hoped today's effort would make a difference economist fishman totes awesome introductions are interviewing so they would choose to be hopeful and we say to them that the best way to help is to emphasize the basic principles upon which the process is funded in their commitment to peace

a commitment to democracy or contemptuous and we say to them that would take with regard to ship them to please emphasize the need for them to keep the peace and that they're only important role on the condition that they do keep the peace and in belfast northern ireland today thousands of catholics are just as they did in a st patrick's day parade it was the first ever to be held in the center of the largely protestant pro british city led more on this story later in the program that insulates denied today there was an attempt to discredit kathleen willey yesterday they released cordial notes and letters between the president and willie a former white house volunteer spokesman mike mccurry said the documents were handed out to put the story in some context or the alleged the president made a sexual pass at her when he asked him for a job in nineteen ninety three he denies that mccurry spoke to reporters at his regular white house briefing

there is enormous interest in her and there seem to be utility of providing information that helped american people have a bar context which understand the soaring other occasions you yell at us when we don't make such information available in this case we were able to make available in and i'm not trying to characterize it other than to say it provides more context people understand the soaring well it is rather encounter with the president last sunday on cbs's sixty minutes' opinion polls were released today that show the willie accusations had little effect on the president's high job approval ratings lead more on the story right after the most under secretary defense column today ordered the national guard to help combat terrorism he said the guard will create an emergency units each with twenty two fulltime members it will help local authorities assess india with attacks from chemical biological and even nuclear weapons cullen has asked congress for nearly fifty million dollars to pay for the

team's he spoke at the national press club in washington as a threat which will continue to spread by virtue of the spread of technology by accessed information over the internet and other means of acquiring this information that we're likely to see are groups that could be the state sponsored or transnational who will acquire them at the herbal expense and be able to develop the means of delivering them and so we have to be prepared this is not something that is a scare tactic it's a reality overseas today the national people's congress selected true rongji a premier of china he'd been vice premier in charge of the economy and is credited with bringing china's runaway inflation under control the selection was announced in beijing's great hall of the people he was the only candidate and that's it for the new summer tonight now it's on to our regional commentators the prime minister of ireland a st patrick's day poem and student loans this was polled a and kathleen

willey story the question was whether her accusations of sexual misconduct by the president and had an impact on public opinion three major polls taken after willie's interview on cbs's sixty minutes last sunday suggest nothing's changed the president's job approval rating remains above sixty percent the cbs news poll asked how important to the nation where the sexual allegations about the president twenty four percent said great while forty five said very little a cnn usa today gallup poll found about the same number of people believe president clinton's version of events as billy kathleen willey is the same poll asked the willies charges for more serious than those made by other women sixty one percent said no we take our own pulled out from our regional commentators cynthia tucker the atlanta constitution that when we in the daily oklahoman leak along with the dallas morning news and bob kittle of the san diego union tribune and mike barnicle in boston globe was on vacation joining the others tonight is july and columnist for the arkansas democrat gazette and author of

the book fool's for scandal how the media invented whitewater they call on how you see the importance of the kathleen willey development i think it does have some importance i think it's very significant that patricia island of a nationalization a women came out finally and said that there is a potential problem here with the president i think women women's groups have been extraordinarily radisson on these issues because the quiet and the president has been so very good on women's business abid says there's a very good an abortion if they hesitate to upset the apple cart all i think it has importance i find kathleen willey credible and i must say that i don't cry if these letters that she wrote after the alleged incident that would be a very normal thing to do she wanted to maintain her relationship with the president he was her boss potentially she won the job she wanted access to the social life of the white house she wanted to reassure and that there was nothing wrong no hard feelings and you know gay talese wrote a book years ago called honor thy father about the mafia which a mafioso name the nano said never let people

know how you feel i think that's what she was practicing in and it makes perfectly good sense to me you know the letters are in teammate this is an exhibit of what i call catch twenty two feminism i mean you basically are saying that no evidence makes any difference whatsoever we have to believe or not believe and what we hear the political predilections i think that's a silly thing to say of course these letters that strike people as evidence that she was less shocked horrified than she affected to be something more abroad so if the white house had set out to discredit her all they would've had to do was distribute stories that are picked up off nexus the other day in the richmond times dispatch in the chicago tribune about the very strange series of activities up following her husband's death her of the war that was worn out for her for harassing people who are suing her husband whom she blamed for his death the fact that she has papers and filed in court in richmond charging her with fraud and the fact that

she's made now known it's now known to be negotiating i think the figures are three hundred thousand dollars book contract so all of these things it seems to me at intuit next to them i think the letters are fairly insignificant but if you add all those together you see this is a significant of all mothers lead us do i see you you do you think that that kathleen willey story is a significant development in this whole story of the allegations against the press i think it's b i think it's significant in the sense that for reasons of social class that is to say ms willie looked like she could've been a member of my wife's book club and those kinds of women who have supported the president through a lot before that not believe before i think were taken in by her performance on sixty minutes to me and i'm kind of flabbergasted that sixty minutes did less than one half of the story in presenting that un mediated by lots of other information it was already available the stuff i was reading in the richmond paper was more than a month old and we get heavy reading the willie stark i think

it's pretty significant her father uses of imported out although i don't let my views on moral issues in particular be driven by public opinion poll and i must say that one of the things that strikes me is that willy's story about this incident her stories if you will have been relatively consistent where's the president at the time these allegations first began to surface and newsweek and elsewhere it indicated that he had only a vague recollection about the incident but now in recent days i guess it was within the last twenty four hours we were saying had a very clear recollection of the incidents of money get into doing scenarios i think if she still gets the better of the argument in terms of the presentation of the information and this follows the pattern the pattern is that bad information about the conduct of this man that's our president a particularly his conduct towards women it's presented

and then and what howard kurtz calls the spin cycle very quickly we get information trashing these women and were in the midst of all of that cycle now you see this same cycle bob kittle oh i think so i don't think there's any doubt that the white house is trying to discredit kathleen willey testimony and the reason for that is that i think what she has said that adds up to a very strong assault on the president's credibility and it's not just the fact that she is uneducated somewhat of an upper class woman with a lot of credibility in her presentation it also has to do with the fact that this is her charges are not being made in a vacuum they come in the context of the charges they've been made by paula jones and monica lewinsky jennifer flowers and frankly this raises for me some very serious implications for the president's ability to lead down the road i think there's been a chipping away here at his credibility and credibility as an intangible thing and it may not seem to matter much on a day to day basis but when the president needs to rally the nation in a crisis when there's an important vote coming what he needs to do

to gain the country support you may find that this chipping away at his credibility adds up to a lack of trust therefore a lack of support among the american people for his policies and we may have seen a little touch of that i believe in the rather adverse reaction to the president's anticipated use of force in the persian gulf were suddenly the country was ready to follow him on this course so i think this you know all begins to add up after a while we have to be careful because you know the president's credibility is is vital and i think that kathleen willy has chipped away at his credibility you agree with that person to get the english chip away wow jim the public opinion polls that you just cited a moment ago show that that hasn't happened yet although he could happen and i think it may happen if the public begins to separate the allegations and this will aid has made from the allegations surrounding monica lewinsky they're two very different things and while i'm reserving judgment about whether or not i believe kathleen willey is telling the truth and she is telling the truth her allegations are much more

troubling than the swirling around monica lewinsky whatever may or may not have happened between whiskey and the president apparently she has never suggested that the president made unwanted advances in fact if you are to believe the apparent tapes that linda tripp made michael lewinsky may have had a crush on the president to sort of be a bully and schoolgirl ish about this but kathleen willy made it very clear that the president made on wanted advances and that's a very different nature and i find those allegations very troubling and if thoreau are very damaged leon this public opinion poll of bases not only would you all set an idea of the editorials in and many newspapers that getting here and these new york times and watch and vote were very harsh on the president on all of this and yet the polls the public doesn't seem to share the outbreak that so many editorial writers and

commentators do it huge fine gem i think that the american people simply want stable government i think they want some how to ride through these next three years into the next century in the next millennium they don't want very much going on but that was right they were prepared to support strikes interact necessarily because i like this president is all he's he doesn't do anything that suits them fly solo they don't want disruption they're satisfied with the job he's doing because they're not upsetting at night and a wild world the subject of kathleen willey i would like to respond for a moment to some energy alliance said he was talking about the richmond reports about her late night phone calls to business associates of her husband that was certainly an unattractive it an unfortunate thing to do but she was desperate her husband committed suicide he had a terrible business problems i don't think the advantages or credibility in this matter she was simply a drowning woman at that time jim lyons do you see a disconnect between the public and now the pundits oh yes very clearly everyone i talked to is fairly disgusted with the media and

i'm fairly amazed at the alacrity with which people in our line of work are willing to jump to the worst possible conclusions on the least possible evidence no i don't think that harassment businesses dispositive in and of itself i think the charges of financial fraud are more important i think three hundred thousand dollars book contract is more important moreover unlike and i'm not trample right here but i know a lot of women that i've known bill clinton for a very long time and worked with him i talked to a woman the other david trotter rallied several of her friends to get together in a living room setting people who would impress the public is very much like swilley and say this is not a man we know we've known him for twenty years he doesn't do these things but they were afraid to do so they all said world in our forties we've got histories were afraid of the press and were afraid of tennis star i might add that i called starr's office the other day that the crimes of her miss willie's husband allegedly committed before his suicide reform or seriousness of jim mcdougal i see an apparent counsel's office did she seek and did she

get immunity i couldn't i got a no comment i still think the public has to answer on a question what crimes you talking about specifically i'm talking about embezzling two hundred and seventy five thousand images the other the crimes against what jim mcdougal by the bogus loans he intended to play them back that would lead in the polls the public opinion polls don't seem to bear out you were abused other words they don't seem to agree with you if i had to explain them well i think voters often hold just like each of us on this panel hold in segments views that can be described as contradictory but not are not really well my barnacles now with this tonight's all repeat one of his lines from a column we carried a few weeks ago the country basically trust bill clinton with the economy but we don't trust him with our daughters that's the bottom line and i don't think that's a good enough standard for the president of the united states i'm not gloating or anything but you know it's st patrick's day is will remark earlier in europe and ireland

and pat mcquaid in the same place which is an unusual of it and i think there's some significance to that and underlining these polls that show approval for the state of our economic life and basic approval for the president's performance in terms of managing the economy underlying that is this unease with the way this man treats women it's very interesting what mr lyons said that there are some women in arkansas because of course we now have all kinds of evidence of other women who reached very different conclusions about what this man who is our president is capable of doing in their presence in san diego you fear your readers are as concerned about the chipping away in the various signs of the president's credibility that you are radar they represented in this made these national polls as well jim i suspect that they would be represented in the national polls of the opinion in san diego is not much different than what the nation's national polls show but i do think that throughout all of this we in the media are awfully close to it and was so we do reach conclusions sooner than that but the general

public the public right now doesn't seem to see a lot of relevance in the president's sexual conduct and other than his governing now i do that i think we change in all this scandal is still evolving and i don't think we can say just you know in the twenty four hours every kathleen willies testimony on television that it doesn't matter i think it can add up over time i don't really see a lot of that my view may be well be a minority view i don't see our readers expressing a lot of alarm about this but in the long run i don't see how this can can can make the president's job any easier i do think that that while a lot of people don't think it matters a majority of people believe the president's lying and that's got to take a toll on his presidency over time most americans believe he has lied to us about his sexual misconduct your relation to well again i've the polls suggest that certainly people are like kathleen willy was credible at least half as many think she's

telling the truth this think that bill clinton is telling the truth but they don't think it matters and i think that there may be an even more troubling conclusion that can be drawn without assuming that either paula jones is telling the truth or kathleen willey is telling the truth we don't know yet their statements have not been vetted in the court of law where they will end up are probably in may in the paula jones harassment case it seems to me that it is possible that many americans just don't think that the sexual harassment of women is very important certainly not an important enough issue to rock the presidency on where the president is doing a pretty good job in his public life and if that is true i find that troubling indeed especially odd given the irony that no plan was supposed to be a good film as president if it turns out that he has been at the helm and his conduct has helped create a climate where there is a backlash against women and sexual harassment is disorder when dad i think that that will be very unfortunate indeed

well i think your father like this is st patrick's day and the market president met with representatives of all four parties involved in trying to bring peace to northern ireland charles krauss has the story some thirty three hundred protestants and catholics have been killed in northern ireland since nineteen sixty nine and even now the violence continues despite peace talks in the cease fire and on one side of what's called the troubles as the irish republican army haven't guessed i need real organization the ira fights in the name of northern ireland's catholic minority it's a must and centuries of british rule so that the six counties of northern ireland can join the rest of the irish republic to miss out

on the other side of the fight as northern ireland's protestant majority which has been destined to roll forces of its own fearful of losing their privileges and their identity our distance in the north are opposed to a united ireland willing to fly to remain a part of britain but after decade of failed attempts to negotiate a settlement the prospects for peace suddenly brightened last may for tony blair was elected britain's prime minister i am determined to move on it is essential to make political progress rapidly the preparation for substantial polls must with him just a month after blair's remarks lasted a lot of gen fang the ira's political wing and the irate self agreed to a cease fire a massive temper shin fein leader gerry adams for the first time to join peace talks intended by the protestant unionist party leader david trimble that meeting was followed by another historic meeting a

month later when blair met adams behind closed doors during the trip of all facts clearly the atmosphere surrounding the talks of change but extremists on both sides have sought to undermine the progress by continuing the violent and last month she and thain was temporarily expelled from the peace talks after police in belfast link the murders of two men and the ira but after meeting with blair last weekend london adams was invited to rejoin the tops for what both the british and irish governments hope will be a final push towards a definitive peace agreement during talks with the former majority leader of the us senate democrat george mitchell indeed michel in the clinton administration have become so important to the peace process with leaders of the various political parties in northern ireland as well as representatives of the british and irish governments now spend st patrick's day in washington ireland's prime minister bertie ahern was at the white house this morning with the

british government now setting a mid april deadline for the peace talks to conclude today president clinton urged all sides to overcome their differences during the crucial the next round of talks scheduled to begin next week during the st patrick's day that's i will speak with the party leaders who've come here to washington i will tell all or on all sides the same thing it's a it is clearly an emphatically as i possibly can this is the chance of a lifetime for peace in our you must get it to get an agreement there must be compromise no party candidates see achieved all its objectives the party leaders misleading leading means looking forward it means being strong enough to a possible compromise tonight there will be a white house reception for all the political leaders from the republic of ireland northern ireland and britain were currently in

washington we reviewed irish prime minister harper yesterday morning mr prime minister thank you very much for joining us what is the us role in the peace process one since nineteen ninety four when the first cease fires were built a republican movement on the line this movement out were announced in the united states of being almost central to everything that's been going on in northern ireland are trying to it brokered a successful deal between all of the parties now and united states have extremely close relationships with both the british government on clarence's prime minister with dr scott and self sufficient and i think with all of the parties and the president the administration have in the first most even her and that way giving i've given access a dialogue i've given their

assessments at all of the parties are trying to bring i think the government at the end of the schools in the first place or twenty years of violence and seventy five years of conflict eight hundred years of disagreement about is all of england on an extremely useful way about a president and administrative if there is an agreement would you anticipate that the united states would serve as a kind of guarantor i'll get it so i think it would be important that if this deal is content of course a big glowing reference to the irish people both north and south hopefully in a humble then i think what we need to make sure is that we lived like at whatever's agreed and i think in the case and the united states would have a very important goal that it doesn't have to be for what we've all heard great encouragement over the last four five years and from the president and the administration a fairway and i think whenever we

would sign i conclude i would be sold we'd have to live by i think people will be very anxious to do that is there any likelihood that the united states would be asked to send military are troops or police into northern ireland perhaps to replace the british i don't think so i think what it would probably be required is that we're going to have a radical reform of the existing places that had data itself of how the review of the role of the british governments have done a lot of work on the kind of revenue that would be useful and the hard reality is that the the press and please stay at the wilds of discovery are not in acceptable force that's presently constituted a notion a serious they never hugged me and while neither leadership try and you know i acknowledge that they try and the fact is that in an overall settlement that would have to be a fundamental foreign policy decision that was clearly a

coalition of the british government can you be any more specific about what issues have to be resolved that yes and it would induce installment which was that the parliament and an all star and the revelation the six counties that collapsed in nineteen seventy two was abolished by harper mr ted hughes has been rumored but six counties have also been moved directly from westminster as part of the settlement will be a new assembly in northern ireland at the lectern elected by proportional education for our people would share power laila sununu this nationalist and republicans would be elected to ensure our island and daughters of course the key issue know the second issue is the relationship between northern ireland and southern accent out there has not been any formal want for seventy five years since the nineteen twenty one night of what would happen in the new arrangement that people elected us to

northern ireland people elected this overnight it would be an norte senate committees working for the good of the whole environment very strong embodies know that would give at northern lushness and neil involvement in the say in the running of the audience that would not be isolated cause they been for seventy five years and the loser two key issues and these are the two strands as it's called the other side of the negotiations but you suggested that the ministry crumbled our unionist protestant party has to still make some concessions of this is going to happen yes and he would be very much in favor of the first part of the new parliament parliament and he would be hesitant about how the relationship with the senate i think they have moved to a position and where they would be happy to have a relationship so but not very powerful bodies at that will work quite frankly what is necessary is that these north so bodies are powerful but they have

decision making functions and i think that is it is a crucial point for them for the simple reason as nationalists who look to the senate i who look to the irish flag who look to the irish constitution and look for protection from jerusalem and that would not agree chinese sentiment that would only be an internal problem prominent portland and art eddy equally have to have it so kind of it and to really say with the sentiment i think and that is the only way her coursework the first that particular that the second part of the media they are mutually they commit but do you think that give the ira and shane fans have come to the conclusion that they will not get a united ireland anytime in the near future that they reached that decision how i can shoot things are certainly have moved from a position where at except that the principle of consents and meaning that you cannot change at the position of northern ireland's

would boost the majority of the people in northern ireland making that decision which would mean there would be democratically peacefully in the future i think should face to the opposition providing that they see that there's some cooperation and some structure within the island department of course at my party and most people in the south of art and most people in the end a lot of our lushness republicans i would still hold the hockey inspiration on another day other people would accept the principle of consent and broadly united on that remains a peaceful legitimize aspirations of our people above and the concept of weak and for stuff and to abominable as wonder with the move away from it has been suggested that your government and the british government if there is no agreement by the easter deadline that the two governments may impose some sort of solution and then take that to a referendum is that likely and it's a possibility

that frankly it is not every viable proposition it is to six counties of northern ireland to being a long the volunteers at a bitterness and mayhem and plundering and shootings at to try to impose a settlement that would be extremely difficult to government would have to use the best officers to encourage and sent to camps and to try and rally the settlement to impose a totally and i think what we would have a lot of and josiah consequences and which i would not like to be part of what are the odds that there will be peace in ireland within the next couple of months i think is a very good opportunity to put it into context of our air would agree that national cycling fund and all of the ashes from or not and so i hope and most of the unions parties that this is the best opportunity since it twenty minutes early and that to say it's good beat deafness that would be something i couldn't

say i would certainly is that the best opportunity that we've got in a few generations prime minister herman thank you very much for joining us and happy st patrick's day the same tunes very nicely which oversees us about it and on this st patrick's day a small shamrock now from the poet laureate of the united states robert pinsky there's an extravagance of imagination and a comedy that many people associate with our land along for the site head and disturbing violence that has been associated with that country in the nineteenth century poet walter savage landor are i think catches some of the self irony and comedy associate with an extravagance and in his whole about arlen manages to keep the idea of imagination in

ireland in a way that one's up as a kind of tribute years lenders little palm about ireland ireland never was content could say you so you are given to ireland was the contented when all could use this fourteen and and when power rose so high that her parents split the sky and about her cohorts were seeing their renewed angels rogan green wearing my st patrick's county emeralds a big as half a county so mcconnell is out tonight the cost of student loans but first this is public on public television were taken a short break now so your public television station and ask for your support that support helps keep programs like ours on the air i

for those stations not taken a pledge break the newshour continues now with excerpts from today's st patrick's day ceremony at the white house beginning with remarks by prime minister of her mr president i'm very conscious but the principle of unity and diversity has been one of the major domestic teams of your presidency the leadership that you're providers and this team has been inspiring not only been in the united states but also internationally clare says in the media's renee songs in places such as bosnian middle east and of course in northern islands in a northern ireland you're inspiring vision of peace but based on the acceptance of diversity has been matched by your constant support for a process which has experienced its shares of ups and downs and you be true to your promise made her at a number of years ago that you would be a friend of violent not just on st patrick's day when every day in iraq

their support for the process has not only been constant but also impeccably fair and balanced and i want to thank you were no i think president as we spoke and this morning a decisive period in the talks at the core issues of the well and truly aired over the past months we're now in the endgame success will require courage a willingness to compromise impossible hall at the generous vision which transcend the partnership focuses on the common interests of all who are in the talks and also shares her art house will be a great he assisted by the continued support apartment which we know that we can count on when you mr president for mrs clinton the mirrored ministration a former friends on both sides of the isle of congress mr president i want to thank you for everything you've done i want to thank you for all that you can trigger that the cause of peace in northern irelands and presenting you with the unifying symbol of shamrock i wish you in your family a very sane happy

st patrick's day speaking spanish things became thank you very much thank you for the role of shamrocks we will proudly displayed as a lesson symbol of our shared values and common heritage this is a holiday day for laughter and celebration but let me say something about which we are all very serious northern ireland now has an unparalleled opportunity for a just and lasting peace the two second his government and tony blair the british government and on the extra mile to create an atmosphere in which negotiations can succeed george mitchell has been a very distinguished chairman of the peace talks and we thank you for your compensation

during the st patrick's day that's i will speak with the party leaders who've come here to washington i would tell all of the little on all sides the same thing i will say it as clearly and emphatically as i possibly can this is the chance of a lifetime for peace in our you must get it done you must do it for yourself and your children it is too light for those who've already been killed in the sectarian violence the last three decades but you can do it and you must now all the people on the island of ireland and the sentinels for peace if only their leaders will make the principal means necessary to give them that chance as we rejoice today in the spirit of st patrick the heritage of irish and irish american people let us remember what the spirit of st

patrick was and how he became the first and only person ever to bring christianity to a distant aliens place without the saw another spring the future the arm or they have that great achievement of synthetic it must not ha finally tonight the student loan story and phil ponce more than five million students take our college loans under federal programs and the cost of taking out these loans could be dropping significantly less because the interest rate on government guaranteed student loans is set by congress and under the law the interest rate is scheduled to drop come july first under the current formula stearns pay in interest rate of just over eight percent but as of july a new formula set to kick in which would

lower the rate to about seven percent that new interest rate private lenders say would be far too low they administer about seventy percent of korean student loans and lenders say if that theory goes into effect they will stop making is no longer start making loans on it heather and again by the administration to come up with a compromise has failed and tomorrow this all comes up before a house subcommittee joining us now with more on the issue are marshall smith acting deputy secretary of education and john davis chairman of the education funding committee of the consumer bankers association jama walking mr smith why does the administration support a lower rate well for two reasons first was a guaranteed loan program and guarantee means two things this case won every state in the country can get what they need one school and two there's a guaranteed by the government to the banks banks so that if a student defaults the banks get ninety percent of the original principal plus whatever accrued interest

occurs or three times now what we want to look for loren visser were looking for a lower interest rate and i wanted to give students access to college and all students needed in this country that since the greatest investment we can make an error in our youth and this gives them a better chance to get in and over a period of five years the interest rate that the administration's proposed was eleven billion dollars compared to the interest rates in effect right now eleven million dollars for a student that that takes out about a twenty thousand dollar donors series of those that add up to twenty thousand dollars on the students' eight thousand dollars over periods and right now we're going through jones drop in the marketplace so with converse well what we look it up on the on the internet it's a wonderful wonderful letters and to do this stuff mortgage rates are for houses are roughly seven point three seven point four percent the rate on car cars and car loans are about seven

point five percent than what we're proposing is seven point o percent of all we're proposing it on a guaranteed loan there's no risk so very different than the uses for for housing market were where does or for car rows of other mission is of one can get a mortgage for some point one percent in a car alone for seven of reporters why one of low rates are still why does too often points to combine your first of all stood rate effectively is lower than the rate even though mr smith court because of two factors first of all in many cases students will qualify have interest paid for the modern school in second beginning in nineteen eighty six nineteen eighty eight actually loans are tax deductible for the first five years the interests over many stephens the effective rate will actually be less than five percent second point mortgage loans are dramatically different than students with a mortgage loan at the time was taken out the borrower's income the bars assets we know of borrowers that were still on their loans like entertainment for several years until barley school many times the bar

where is china so anonymity chances are it's hard to reach them and so our loan servicing cost for those loans are much higher than what they are with mortgage loans plus the fact which actually won three five hundred hours to work and maybe talking about a hundred and thirty thousand dollars mortgage insurers and cost dramatically come up that the fundamental differences between student loans and loans for houses and cars but no i don't think so one of things that happens is that the banks get out the loans but the loans and then they sell the loans to servicers so they have to absorb the cost of the time and the second thing is we're really talking about the writers didn't so much i think that that issue's been such an unsettled pretty much indecision proposals been accepted by the house and leave the house will vote tomorrow on a commemorative about seven twelve percent a year the lenders stone represents a proposal in point six five percent of the big difference in

new england the house proposals around seven point five percent the administration went in and took a look at what a fear of a fair rate would be as a treasured a study ceiling really interested in sweden on the sofa are making out with a range of between six point nine and seven point three of interest rates which would give a fair and competitive right to the banks into the other lenders and we've done as propose something inside of that and i bought the house proposal in the bank proposal or outside a banner above the soviets would've vary from bankers turn on a wonderfully a couple things of mike's interest for these loans are not restrict there is a government guarantee on the lawns however there are significant services we have stacks of regulations that we need to comply with to make certain that the loans stay in compliance and the guarantees data points you cannot are shot in sioux falls south dakota and showing a lot of people searching a lot of loans that they're there because of the regulatory burdens that are involved in making certain that the guarantees days ago i asked what a fair

rate i think they are the only way that we're really going to determine this is through market type measures to make certain that they have the rate is competitive in the marketplace i don't know the congress knows there is i don't know that i know at that rate as the market grows because i know that in today's today's government guaranteed loan program there's price competition on price competition will continue to set their rates so even now with the euro with the equivalent of that eight point two five or whatever is there is competition you know absolutely which effectively are doing with today's rate for mothers are setting a ceiling and the competitive marketplace driving every or i give an example say borrowers many lenders offer a borrower discount programs worked wonders if the borrower makes forty consecutive payments will reduce that marjorie by two percent of the time they're fourteen i mean it's that significant benefit to the borrower that in effect it reduces the cost of our listeners first competition in today's marketplace where banks couldn't do it that the rate is lower than that what you wanted to sign off on your eyes to be seen as as sir mike so there's reasonable

proposals on the table with an article in this issue is going to end up i would do the do an audit of the administration's proposal takes effect that there's been only serves time with their maturity loan program that means some banks are just not making as many loans are some banks are gonna make me close altogether there could be one of the authors with his humans usually they're taken very seriously and that's that's why we had a study done for the sin city that comes out of the congressional budget office which looks at the other treasures that we believed would separate that that is within a reasonable range and that it's not affect the supply very much but if it does affect the supply and with a contingency plan that they can go to work immediately and their art and a lot of the lenders of the last resort and selling a corporation just deals with huge numbers of loans every year and a lot of these other agencies that existed in this locker room i'll ready to step in and take over an awful lot of the london that certain banks about so we believe that we've covered every contingency

in this that we've got a fair rate derek for banks their of characters for students leave this proposal has is a very strong and we'll see a lot of attention paid to it and in the senate that you said that though you have these these of this contingency plan waiting in certain banks step out what if a lot of banks that the government help the administration make of this like some well and john talk about the idea of the kinds of loans that are more preferable to the banks that is larger loans and loans from the people that they see as more stable in some way that is more likely to be elderly pay easley salute the servicing course on it is great a large percentage of the students in this country are exactly that exactly the situation of the yale students in four year colleges and private colleges and so on most of them when those situations are fairly large loans over a period of time and they do pay their narrative alone costs another and another set of students that that often are

poor can't get absorb some of the cost and actually often have small loans those laws are distracted and we believe that we need to make absolutely certain that everyone assumes will be eligible to get love a house subcommittee is gonna propose this industry in the range of seven point nine percent or so how will apollo and the bank is going to go and is this so seven point nine percent rate is that something that your members were greeted we are we still find the problems with the house also narrow our concern is this trip around the guaranteed loan program works for well everest and the needs along get along with price competition lenders continue to invest in technology you can go out today if you listen to our blog on the internet and you can put in your so scary number of a pen and you can get information about you along those types of technology investments will go away if the cuts are too low we will continue strong government guaranteed loan program will make certain that all borrowers can i have access to a loan program and are concerns that these types of cuts are being

proposed will not allow for wired robust and it really there is no security of investment that will be made in order to compete in the market will in fact enhancers service called it the result was that to actually unintelligible again the major stories of this tuesday president clinton spent st patrick's day urging northern ireland leaders to make tough choices for peace white house aides deny that really see notes to mr clapton from a former volunteer was an attempt to discredit her claims of sexual impropriety by the president and that then secretary colin ordered the national guard repaired account or potential acts of domestic terrorists will see online and again here tomorrow evening i'm jim lehrer thank you and goodnight due in part by eight feet in the movie is the biggest challenge of the new century ad and is promoting soil conservation so history doesn't repeat itself

again there's a wind in your life or the company that was built with integrity and humanity and strength these are the values that have made in your life to the company you keep them and by the corporation for public broadcasting and by the annual financial support from viewers like you thank you video cassettes of the newshour with jim lehrer are available from pbs video call one eight hundred three to eight pbs one he's been fb

the

fb a

search