Federal loan consolidation helps a student to repay his/her loans through a single monthly payment at a lower interest rate and is guaranteed by the government. There are various student merging options available through education relief companies. Student Loans Debt Loan consolidation has more details and information that you need for consolidating student loans.  

if Obama doesn't like this ... it has to be right

The Federal Government isn't a bank, they have no business giving out loans, of any kind.

UPDATE! Ron Paul is the only candidate who wants to end the Federal bomb everyone we don't like program.  It's wrong to kill people and the US does it everyday.  Student loans?!!!! Really?!!!!

Paul's a disgusting pig and a racist.  It's not surprising that he wants to take the country back to pre-civil war days in terms of policy. 

No, he want to take us back to the Spirit of 1776 and Liberty!
Enjoy your life under Obama's tyranny.

I'm a hard progressive liberal with social libertarian and economic leanings towards a socialist/capitalist hybrid system, and I would absolutely vote for Ron Paul over Obama in the general election.  At least Dr. Paul is honest and interesting, even if I do disagree with several of his policies (health care, totally free-market, environmental...).

I'd just rather know what I'm getting than some weak-ass shill for the financial sector.

Its also interesting that the majority of the election coverage on Gothamist has been about blasting Ron Paul.  I guess the other candidates do it to themselves, but still... For a site devoted to New York content, spending time blasting Ron Paul just makes me think its a move for page views and comments.

Ooops... Second comment for me.  Gotta stop feeding the beast.

This guy is a fucking blow-hard jerk- whose only function is to put 'static' on the line of the American Electorate!
The RNC shoud just not give this fool the time of day, and get rid of this asshole!

Robbins... c'mon man, if you can eat pizza at OWS and write twitter updates about Tom Morello on your blackberry (you do provide your twitter page through Gothamist, need I remind you), you can at least write a non-opinionated piece of dish-dribble. From one Chris born n' raised in "The South" to another, I mean it dude.

This article is riddled with factual errors. It is really a pathetic attempt at journalism. 

College loans should not be given to everyone like Stafford Loans are.  You should have to prove to the loan officer that you have a plan for college - that you've at least thought about what career you'd like to pursue and how going to college is going to support that goal. 

Otherwise, what is the point?  I know spending 4 years away from mom and dad sounds pretty cool - frat parties and football games and dorm sex.  But, unless you're investing in yourself by taking worthwhile class that lead to a valid degree (not from a diploma mill - I'm looking at you University of Phoenix) then you are a BAD investment. 

You will end up like these idiots on OWS complaining how they couldln't get a job with your liberal arts degree.  No shit.  It took you 4 years and $150K to figure that out??

My take on America, if I base it on these "chats," is that most Americans are really stupid and just like to argue about stuff to make themselves feel smart. Few are interested in the truth, which would involve no small measure of self-examination and reconfiguration. 

http://www.npr.org/2011/10/21/...

Counterpoint. Go to a good school with a large endowment.
http://finance.yahoo.com/colle...

Here's the part I don't get.

You've got Ron Paul up there on stage, asking "Elect so I can GIVE you more RIGHTS, I want to get the government out of your life, I want you to be able to get yourself what YOU want!" and then you've got everyone else saying "Elect me so I can GIVE you what you want. A huge fence on the border! Foreign wars to keep you safe! I want to be able to give you what you want!"

 And people are actually rejecting self-determination in favor of government sponsored everything.

Ron Paul does not say he is going to give you more rights, he can't.   Rights come from God/or if you prefer your humanity/natural rights. He says he wants to get the government out of your life because the government has completely overstepped it's bounds and has become a statist corpratist overlord that has overtaken almost every sector of the economy and student loans are just one area that has been nationalized driving the cost of tuition up and enslaving college kids for decades...I know I have had student loans four different times, am working on paying off the last two.

The government can not give you rights, if rights came from them they can surely be taken away.  Read and study your Constitution. The chief function of the federal government is to protect your rights not usurp them. Ron does want to get the government out of our lives so that we can be free. We live practically under tyranny now as Obama had made himself Dictator subverting Congress, forcing his will through regulation and executive order, going to war willy nilly-the U.S. is the bully in this scenario. 

Ron never says he wants to give you what you want. He is always saying he can not tell us what to do or how to run our lives and that he does not want to do that.  Go watch a video or three dozen or so and educate yourself before you speak. In fact he says it will be very tough to right the ship of state because to reset the economy you have to get rid of the malinvestment. He calls for people to be responsible and not dependent on the near total nanny state we have become.

The problem with an entitled society is that someone has to pay for it, eventually you run out of other people's money and meanwhile the money is counterfeited by the Fed (private banking families) or loaned from China and it enslaves this country and future generations, it destroys the economy, destroys the currency and is bankrupting the nation and we will no longer have a constitutional republic but mob rule and a reign of terror.

Learn about freedom and liberty and capitalism, read the Preamble to the Constitution, and the Constitution, know your rights and you will rapidly come to understand we are losing them tight and left, no fourth amendment no privacy (TSA), red light cameras, violates several rights, limits on the second amendement, the first, the fifth.  Please know you rights and realize what a great country you live in and see how it is being systematically being destroyed by big government.

RON PAUL 2012

BTW foreign wars do not keep us safe.

Nothing pisses people off more than freedom, Todd. Then they have only themselves to blame for their lives. Sad but true.

First a disclaimer. I am NOT a Paul supporter at ALL. 

The student debt total is crushing. The loans need to be paid back, but something needs to be done. As hard as it might be, Paul is on to something. The loan program has caused tuition to climb too fast.

There was a time not that long ago when a student could graduate nearly debt free, and in a few years buy a home if he had a decent job. But when a person has $100,000 to $150,000 of debt at the age of 22, that is a daunting situation - especially today where jobs are difficult to come by.

Today, a high school graduate would do far better to go to a trade school or start an online business. By the time they were 22, they could be earning a decent living and be DEBT FREE. By the time they were 25 to 30, they could finance a home.

If they still wanted to go to college when they hit 22, they could pay for it themselves if they go to an in-state school.

I went to school in the late 90s. At the time cost was $98 per credit hour. Now it is over $300 for the same classes. I am back in school now which I must say I had to take out loans. I am not happy about that, but if it still cost 98 I could have done it with the little bit of work I do have. All loans do is makes the rich richer while enslaving the poor or now the middle class.