VOA双语新闻：奥巴马呼吁国会延长学贷低利率

U.S. President Barack Obama visited American college campuses on Tuesday, looking for support for his plan to hold down federal student loan rates. The president is appealing to young voters, who overwhelmingly supported him in the 2008 election.
美国总统奥巴马星期二访问了一些大学，为他的维持学生贷款低利率计划寻求支持。 奥巴马总统的这项行动旨在拉拢年轻选民。在2008年大选中，大多数青年人都支持奥巴马总统。
President Obama told students at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill that he and his wife Michelle know what it is like to spend years paying off college loans.
奥巴马总统告诉北卡罗来纳大学教会山分校的学生说，他和奥巴马夫人都知道，要在几年的时间里偿还大学贷款是什么样的滋味。
"Michelle and I, we have been in your shoes," said Obama. "Like I say, we did not come from wealthy families. So when we graduated from college and law school, we had a mountain of debt. When we married, we got poor together."
他说：“我和米歇尔都曾经处在你们的境遇中。正如我说的，我们并非来自富裕家庭。所以，当我们从大学和法学院毕业时，我们的债务堆集如山。当我们结婚时，我们一同过着穷日子。”
The president is calling on Congress to extend a law that cuts federal student loan interest rates to 3.4 percent. Those rates will double if the law is allowed to expire July 1.
奥巴马总统呼吁国会，延长一项将联邦学生贷款利率降至百分之3.4的法律。 如果这项法律在七月一日失效，学生贷款的利率将增高一倍。
"We cannot make higher education a luxury. It is an economic imperative. Every American family should be able to afford it," Obama added.
奥巴马说：“我们不能让高等教育成为奢侈品。那是一项经济的必需品。每一个美国家庭都应该有能力接受。”
While Obama's two-day, three-campus tour is officially a business trip, he is appealing to a core part of his voting base, in the states of North Carolina, Colorado and Iowa that could help decide this year's presidential election.
尽管奥巴马历时两天对三个校园的访问是一次正式的工作访问，他正在动员他的票仓基地的核心部分，即北卡罗莱纳州、科罗拉多州和艾奥瓦州，这些地区可能会对他今年的总统竞选产生决定性的影响。
Obama urged students in North Carolina to use a phrase on the social media site Twitter to press U.S. lawmakers to extend the student loan interest rate cut.
奥巴马敦促北卡罗莱纳州的学生们在社交媒体推特上写上一句话来向美国议员们施压，要求他们延长学生贷款的利息削减。
OBAMA: "You Tweet, everybody say it, just so everybody remembers it."
AUDIENCE: "Don't double my rate."
OBAMA: "Don't double my rate.' It's pretty straightforward."
奥巴马说：“你就推一句话，每个人都说这句话，这样大家都会记得。”
听众齐声说：“就写‘不要把我的贷款利率翻倍’。”
奥巴马说：“不要把我的贷款利率翻倍’，这句话很直截了当。”
In emphasizing his personal experience, Obama drew a contrast with his likely Republican Party opponent, Mitt Romney, whose father was a wealthy auto industry executive.
奥巴马强调他的个人经历，使他跟可能的竞选对手罗姆尼形成对照，罗姆尼的父亲是一位富有的汽车工业主管。
But in an unusual move, Romney said Monday that he agrees with the president that low student loan interest rates should be extended.
但是罗姆尼星期一很不寻常地表示，他赞同奥巴马总统的观点，那就是学生贷款低利率应当延长。
Republican leaders in the House of Representatives say they are deciding whether to support a temporary extension.
国会众议院的共和党领袖们表示，他们将决定是否支持暂时延长这一低利率。
The one-year extension would cost an estimated $6 billion.
把学生贷款低利率延长一年将耗资大约60亿美元。
President Obama said recently that allowing the interest rate to double would hurt more than 7 million students.
奥巴马总统最近表示，允许学生贷款利率翻倍，将影响到7百多万学生。
Student loan debt in the United States is higher than that for credit cards or automobile loans.
美国的学生贷款债务总额要高于信用卡和汽车贷款债务。
The Federal Reserve Bank of New York estimates that 15 percent of Americans, about 37 million people, owe money on student loans. The total amount of those loans is estimated to be between $870 billion and $1 trillion.