President Obama has announced new steps to ease the $1.2 trillion student debt, noting Americans now owe more money on student loans than on credit cards. Obama’s executive order will cap loan payments for millions of people at 10 percent of monthly income — a so-called “Pay As You Earn” model.

President Obama: “So we’re announcing steps that will open up “Pay As You Earn” to nearly five million more Americans. That’s the first action we’re taking today. The second action is to renegotiate contracts with private companies like Sallie Mae that service our student loans. And we’re going to make it clear that these companies are in the business of helping students, not just collecting payments, and they owe young people the customer service and support and financial flexibility that they deserve.”

We’ll have more on student debt later in the broadcast.