The July 1 deadline for preventing the doubling of government-subsidized student loan rates has passed, and lawmakers continue to hash out the details of a plan to move beyond the current impasse. With the Senate recently approving a proposal to tie the rate to the financial markets, it's worth thinking back to earlier this summer at a Rose Garden event held by President Obama. Flanked by a group of idyllic college students, the president tried to fend off the rate doubling when he declared, “Higher education cannot be a luxury for a privileged few. It is an economic necessity that every family should be able to afford.” Two notions should stand out to the careful observer.

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