Obama kicks the banking industry out of the student loan business (Video)

The banking industry is one of the most irresponsible industries out here right now, they NEVER should have gotten into the student loan game. Their interest rates on many students were and are outrageous, they were allowed to take over this industry totally, under the Bush Administration. That will be NO MORE. It has become those who have money, rich, wealthy are the ones who are allowed access to higher education. The middle class in this country have been constantly squeezed out. Now, if we can do something about college tuition and its continuing to escalate in cost, that would be mighty helpful to many families out here. Read more here on the student loan, pell grant program.


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Dr. Jill Biden

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Democratic Congress is its worst enemy

Yes, I just wrote that.

While the Republicans are out in the wilderness trying to rebrand, change, or do something to their image, the Democrats are jockeying for any position to take on, get this one, Barack Obama.

Yes, their Democratic President.

First, we have Senator Evan Bayh (D-IN) and his gathering of all the moderates to tackle any legislation that is, well, just too much for him by Obama.

As he announced on Morning Joe today, Sen. Evan Bayh is forming a Moderate Dems Working group that will meet every other Tuesday before the Democratic caucus to discuss legislative strategies and ideas.

Per Bayh's office, the group's goal "is to work with the Senate leadership and the new administration to craft common-sense solutions to urgent national problems."

In other words, Bayh wants to be a big cheese in the room and he IS NOT.

Next, Senator Ben Nelson (D-NE) who does not want any overhaul of the Student Loan program because Nelnet is a loan provider of these horrible loans to students and they are a big contributor to his campaign. And Obama plans to go around Nelson to overhaul this program. Then we have Nelson outwardly opposing any public insurance health plan for the public. Why? You got it. Insurance companies are BIG contributors to his campaign.

Now we have Obama attempting to overhaul U.S. companies who are hiding their tax dollars in the Caribbean. As Obama pointed out, one address harbors 18,000 corporations’ addresses. Now that is outrageous. I wish I had an address to outmaneuver paying my taxes.

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And now we have those Democrats who have their hands in the corporate tiller getting very ansy and nervous.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, a Montana Democrat, called for “further study” of Obama’s proposals within minutes of the president’s announcement yesterday. Representative Joseph Crowley, a Democrat on the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee, said he’s wary because the tax changes would hurt Citigroup Inc., his New York district’s largest private-sector employer.

Natalie Ravitz, a spokeswoman for Senator Barbara Boxer, a California Democrat, said that any tax overhaul should not lead to “unintended consequences.”

Other Democrats, including House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel of New York, support the proposal. Some lawmakers, including Iowa Senator Charles Grassley, the ranking Republican on the Senate finance panel, are still weighing the plan.

Of course, we have all the lobbyists going full blown and putting their folks on television to state, "this is the biggest tax hike and will eliminate jobs!!!" But the fact is that it is not a tax hike, it is the tax man knocking at your door to make you pay UP. It will not eliminate jobs, because many of these companies are sending their jobs overseas for the cheap anyway.

The Democrats were put in office and in charge to force CHANGE, not to sit on their rumps and remain the SAME. What is the point of having Democrats in charge if they will fight every decision and act like a 2 year old jockeying for power?

Democrats watch out. If you continue, before long, you will be back in the wilderness. I know you read poll numbers; you better take a pulse on what the public wants and what they voted for. Get it together or another party will get it together for you.

Fighting for corporations to keep their tax shelters, bad move. Fighting against a public health care option for Americans, bad move. Fighting against rehauling the student loan program, bad move.

You better wake up Democrats and make the right move.

Cross-posted @ Daily Kos

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Senator Ben Nelson loses to Obama

The conservative democratic Senator Ben Nelson from Nebraska just got played.

It might not be the most glamorous hill, but it's the one that Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) has vowed to die on. President Obama, however, isn't going to give him that chance.

Nelson is perhaps the Senate's fiercest protector of subsidies for student lending institutions, which, not coincidentally, are an engine of job growth in Nebraska. He has vowed to block any effort to reduce those subsidies. And given that Democrats have 58 members and generally need 60 to break a GOP filibuster, he can enforce his will on his colleagues.

An agreement struck between the president and House and Senate negotiators won't give Nelson that chance. A process known as "reconciliation" allows budgetary measures to be moved through the Senate with a simple majority, rather than 60. Multiple congressional sources say that congressional Democrats have decided to use reconciliation to go after student-lending subsidies, specifically to get around Nelson.

Student loans were once under government conservativeship, but when Bush got in office he threw this to the banks, who then, of course, jacked up rates on students and families.

I think the public needs to know exactly what the current student loan program does and why it is such a giveaway to the banks. I think people don´t know, probably because most of the news coverage is about whether or not a bill will pass rather than what it means.

Simply, the current system forces all student loans to be made through banks. The banks charge a medium range of interest--not terribly high, but not terribly low, either. The government GUARANTEES the loans so there is absolutely no risk for the banks.

During Clinton´s term, the student loan plan allowed universities to offer much lower loans by borrowing directly from the government. Students did not have to go through a bank and this shaved 2 or 3 percentage points off the cost of the loan. Neither did it cost the government anything since the money was repaid. But when the Bushies came in, they forced all loans to go through banks, jacking up the interest rates and guaranteeing a profit with no risk for the banks. The government still backed all the loans.

It is a classic example of how lobbying creates direct subsidies for businesses who win their lobbying efforts.

The above is exactly what the effects of lobbying does. Who profited off of this? Not the government, nor the students, but banks. And Nelson's main contributors are the banks.

At this time it is a lose-lose situation for Nelson, especially in these times. Siding with the banks is a bad idea, just look at the mortgage mess and who is the main culprit in that? And lastly....

Without a requirement for 60 votes in the Senate, it's likely the subsidies to voracious student lenders will be trimmed considerably, since there won't be any reason to accommodate the banks' defenders in the GOP -- and Bad Nelson. Most Democrats view the huge federal subsidies, alongside the 100% federal guarantee, as one of the most egregious examples of corporate welfare: banks skim federal money that if allocated to student loans directly would get lots more people educated and lifted out of poverty.

nuff said...

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Obama on Higher Education and Student Loans (Video and Transcript)

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