President Obama Talks Income Based Repayment at UNLV

President Barack Obama delivers remarks on college affordability at UNLV (June 7, 2012)

President Barack Obama delivers remarks on college affordability at Cox Pavilion at the University of Las Vegas (UNLV) in Las Vegas, Nevada, June 7, 2012. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

Speaking today at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, President Obama talked about student loans -- a subject he's personally had quite a bit of experience navigating.

Through the course of their educations -- including a graduate degree for each -- both the President and the First Lady took on debt to pay for school.

"When we got married, we got poorer together," he said. "We sort of added our liabilities together."

In fact, it was 2004 before the Obamas paid off the last of their student loans.

That's not the future he wants for today's college students. And in Las Vegas, he talked about one big step he's taking to help make it easier for everyone to afford a great education:

This is a program that more people need to know about. And we’re going to start doing more advertising about this because this is really important. For those of you who are still in school, you're about to graduate, as long as you make your monthly payments on time -- all right, so pay your bills on time -- we will cap the payments you have to make on your student loans at 10 percent of your discretionary income once you graduate. 10 percent.

It's called the Income Based Repayment program. Have questions? Here's everything you need to know. As part of today's event, the President issued a memorandum to streamline the IBR process and improve information available to responsible borrowers about student loan repayment options. 

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