The Biggest Corporate Contributor to the House Republicans? Surprise!
Sat Nov 04, 2006 at 05:46:59 PM PDT
Cross-posted from
Free Exchange on Campus.
Truly amazing. Ever wonder why this Congress cannot seem to get anything positive done for higher education like raising the Pell grant award (hat tip to Senators Kennedy, Coleman, Snowe and Feingold for trying again this week), or streamlining the student loan process to help the growing problem of student debt burden, or making sure that the money is getting to the students rather than being tied up with self-perpetuating bureaucracies? Ever wonder why they can't do any of that, but they were able to take a shot at allegedly balancing the budget on the backs of students through the student loan program?
Funny, if we were talking about the cost of prescription drugs or
control of the Internet, we would surely imagine that there were some big money interests behind the fight. But not in higher education, right? Wrong. Dead wrong.
Higher Ed Watch is
reporting today that the single largest corporate donation to the National Republican Congressional Committee in 2006 did not come from a pharmaceutical company or the telecom industry, but rather from the giant student loan provider Nelnet.
According to Higher Ed Watch:
Nelnet and its people gave over $150,000 just to the NRCC in 2006. Of course, that's to say nothing of all Nelnet's giving to other Congressional PACs, Members, and parties. All totaled, Nelnet gave almost $500,000 to Congressional candidates and parties (78% to Republicans, 22% to Democrats).
Of course, this type of money is only spent if you think it might have some payback on down the road. However, for Nelnet, it isn't just about future lobbying--they need some help now!
Remember, Nelnet was
investigated by the Department of Education's Inspector General which called for Nelnet to repay almost $300 million dollars in overpayments and stop billing Dept. of Ed on over $800 million dollars of taxpayer-subsidized student loans. As Higher Ed Watch reports, however, whether or not the IG's recommendations will be followed by the Departments political leaders still remains to be seen and much depends on the outcome of Tuesday's elections. Here is the sequence of events from HE Watch:
1) Nelnet rips off the U.S. Treasury by exploiting an egregious student loan subsidy that everyone thinks is indefensible. They bilk taxpayers for hundreds of millions and have them on the hook for almost $1 billion more.
2) There's an effort to cut off Nelnet and the Congressional Republican leadership objects. Ultimately, they lose, but only prospectively. There's still the question of whether Nelnet will be able to keep more than $1.2 billion in improper taxpayer payments.
3) In order to keep the money machine going, Nelnet kicks back a piece of the hundreds of millions in taxpayer subsidy money to Congressional Republicans who have worked to help them in the past.
[snip]
What happened to protecting the interests of students?
So if you are looking for some last minute information on who to vote for and you are looking where folks in Congress stand on higher education as part of your decision--read the whole story.
And again, I say, get out and vote!
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