Recommend this article  Top congressional Republicans made a new
offer to President Barack Obama on Thursday in their fight over
heading off a doubling of interest rates on federal college
loans for 7.4 million students, proposing fresh ways to cover
the effort's $6 billion cost.  The GOP ideas were modeled on
savings that Obama himself had included in his budget for this
year, suggesting that negotiations over ending the election-year
impasse could take a serious turn. Until now, both sides have
favored extending today's 3.4 percent interest rates on
subsidized Stafford loans for another year but clashed over how
to pay for it.  House Speaker John Boehner, Senate Minority
Leader Mitch McConnell and other top Republicans made their
proposals in a letter to Obama. They included savings from
making it harder for states to collect some federal Medicaid
reimbursements.  "There is no reason we cannot quickly and in a
bipartisan manner enact fiscally responsible legislation," the
letter said.  The leaders sent the