I always get a big kick out of President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama talking about the difficulty of paying off their own student loans. President Obama recently stated that he and Michelle paid off their student loans only about eight years ago. That would have been in 2004.

In the year 2004, the president’s income, according to his tax return, was $207,647. For 2003, it was $238,327. Way back in 2000, the Obama family income was $240,505. They were not exactly struggling to make ends meet.

In 2005, their combined total income was $1.6 million. That year, they made a $5,000 donation to the Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, where the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. was the president’s pastor. And in 2005, they also spent $1.65 million purchasing their new home in the Chicago area.

So, we should probably be careful comparing the first family paying off their student loans to someone going to Gadsden State or Jax State and having to pay back student loans he or she needed to attend college.

A program separate from student loans is the Pell Grant program. Pell Grants are covered by legislation titled “The Higher Education Act of 1965, Title IV, Part A, Subpart 1, 20 U.S.C 1070a.” These federally funded grants are not like student loans and do not have to be repaid. At the time this Higher Education Act bill was passed, President Obama would have been four years old, and while I am sure he was a precocious child, I don’t believe he can claim credit for the bill’s passage.

Jim Phillips
League City, Texas