One of the policies that I support from President Obama is reform of the corrupt student loan industry. As a young married woman who's now paying hundreds of dollars a month in student loan debt with my husband, student loan reform is essential, and would help save $80 billion dollars over the next decade by cutting out private lenders.
The savings would result in a huge boon to the middle class and helping ease the financial burden on families:
The money that would be saved by cutting out the private-industry middlemen — about $80 billion over the next decade, according to a Congressional Budget Office analysis — could instead go toward expanding direct Pell Grants to students, establishing $10,000 tax credits for families with loans, and forgiving debts eventually for students who go into public service, administration officials say.
The bill would also shift tens of billions of dollars in expected savings to early learning programs, community colleges and the modernization of public school facilities.
And now why is reform of student loans in serious trouble? Because lobbyists have now hijacked the process by intensively lobbying Senators because they know the Senate is where good progressive legislation goes to die.
Who are these Senators that these Sallie Mae lobbyists are targeting? Well, the New York Times doesn't outright name them, but we can make a few guesses right here:
At Sallie Mae, lobbyists for the firm are focusing on senators regarded as fiscal conservatives, as well as those in states that are home to lending centers with jobs at stake, including Florida, Illinois, Nebraska, New York and Pennsylvania, said John F. Remondi, chief financial officer for the company.
Let me see, fiscal conservatives.....now, would that be the conservative Senate Democrats such as Landrieu, Lincoln, Nelson, Lieberman, Warner and Bayh? Senators from the above named states could be Bill Nelson, Roland Burris, Ben Nelson, Charles Schumer, Kirsten Gillibrand, and Arlen Specter.
This is what President Obama said about the need to reform the student loan industry:
"To make college more affordable, this bill will finally end the unwarranted taxpayer subsidies that go to banks for student loans" and use the savings to finance other educational programs, he said to cheers from Democrats. "In the United States of America," Mr. Obama said, "no one should go broke because they chose to go to college."
I agree with our President on this. In this "greatest" country in the world, no one SHOULD have to go under massive debt to get an education! Wonderful country, eh?
By the way, did you know that the House student loan reform bill has budget reconciliation instructions? I didn't know that, but it does. Senator Tom Harkin wanted to pass this student loan reform bill via reconciliation back in October, but conservaDems balked at that:
But centrist Democrats are blanching at Harkin’s move to use the reconciliation process for an education bill that includes major policy reforms, echoing concerns they raised over using those rules for healthcare legislation.
Who were these conservaDems that raised objections to helping pass student loan reform under reconciliation? Why, it was Conrad and Nelson.
And now for the bad news, as if this wasn't already bad news, apparently you can only use reconciliation once a year. This education bill would have to be packaged together with health reform under reconciliation in order for it to pass:
The bill won't move in the Senate until lawmakers make more progress on healthcare legislation, Harkin said. If Democratic leaders decide to use reconciliation rules for the healthcare bill, they would have to package it with the education reforms, since Senate rules allow for consideration of only one reconciliation bill each year.
So, where are we in this process? We're up against student debt lobbyists, the banking industry, and corrupt Senators. What can we do now today to keep on the push for student loan reform, given that congressional offices are closed today due to the snowstorm?
You can write letters to the editor right here!
If you live in Florida, Nebraska, New York, Illinois, Pennsylvana, Louisiana, Arkansas, Virginia, Indiana, and Connecticut, please WRITE letters to the editor about the need for student loan reform, and urge your Senator to support student loan reform, and not to block the passage of Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act (SAFRA) of 2009 in the Senate.
UPDATE: Just got a weird e-mail from a freeper. Thought I'd already banned this one.
See, this is why "Democrats" such as yourself are such an embarrassment.
"My husband and I are too poor to pay our _________________, and we need help from the government."
a.)taxes
b.)health insurance
c.)student loans.
d.)all of the above.
Instead of seeking help from the government for ourselves, we ask the government to take care of the issues that aren't being addressed FOR OTHERS.
This is what makes us Democrats.
If we implore the government to give us Tax Cuts to enjoy, or to take away our Health Insurance Bills, or take away our Student Loans, then we're nothing more than Republicans.
I hope this helps you make more money as a Lobbyist!