On yesterday’s Your World, Ben Quayle (R-AZ), after ripping Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) on a hearing on SB 1070 in Arizona, was then asked by Neil Cavuto about a pending vote in the House on Friday extending low interest-rate loans to students. Quayle said that was “the first time hearing about that.” Cavuto then went on to repeatedly suggest that Quayle ought to stand with Mitt Romney and support the bill.

Cavuto said: “On Friday, the House is going to take up this extending these low student interest rates on college loans and the like, how are you going to vote?”

Quayle replied, “Well, this is actually the first time hearing about that.”

”Really?” Cavuto sounded more than a little surprised. “…Let me just tell you, on Friday, you’re going to vote on this. How are you going to vote?”

To his credit, Quayle was not going to march in lockstep with Romney. He said, “Well, I don’t know yet. My biggest fear is that …with artificially low rates, that is actually exacerbating the problem with high tuition costs. We have one trillion dollars worth of student debt out there. It is a bubble that is ready to burst. It is very similar to what happened in housing, where you had cheap money and easy loans going out to people who really didn’t need it.”

Cavuto said, “It sounds like you’re a no on this. The reason why I raise it is because this is because Mitt Romney’s a yes.” 

Quayle replied, “And that’s a problem. I don’t know how they’re going to pay for it, if they are going to pay for it.”

Cavuto asked, “What’s your problem, Mitt Romney’s stance or the fact that there’s no way to know how to pay for it?”

Quayle said, “It doesn’t matter, I think, what the Presidential candidate stands for,” he had to do “what’s right for my constituents and my state and the country… If we’re just going to be exacerbating the situation by continuing this program. And Neil, You got to look back at how this program came about. The Democrats reduced the interest rates, and then put it basically… a hot button political issue to automatically double right before an election cycle.”

Cavuto asked, with an edge in his voice, if it had been a “political move” by Romney to support it. “You disagree with his (Mitt’s) position?” It sounded like more of a challenge than a question.

Quayle answered, “I disagree with the fact that we should automatically keep these rates low.”