President Obama got on the phone this afternoon with several college students in a publicly-broadcast conference call, where he fielded questions from student journalists. His objective was relatively simple – garner support for health care initiatives that allow students to remain on their parents’ plan until they are 26, and encourage young people to take part in the upcoming midterm elections.
“I want to remind young people they have to get reengaged in this process and vote in these midterm elections,” he told one caller. It sounds as if Mr. Obama, who received widespread youth support in 2008, may be realizing the fickle tendencies of the youth.
Obama credited health care costs for the hardships of graduating college students, saying “if I keep increasing pell grants and college funding but health care keeps going up and inflation of tuition prices rises, we’re right back to where we started.”
The president also recounted the good ol’ days of his college years. “When i was going to college food at the cafeteria was notoriously bad – we didn’t have a lot of options, we used to joke about what was for lunch that day. There was a lot of nondescript stuff that wasnt edible. We need to ask, what can we do to make universities more cost effective? There should be pie charts at every university that show you where every dollar your spending is going.” Bold words for a Harvard man.
