Lost in the celebration over last night's passage of health insurance reform was another major Obama victory over the forces of evil that masquerade as the Republican Party.
Legislation hailed by supporters as the most significant change to college student lending in a generation passed the House on Sunday night.
Last night -- while Real Americans were celebrating the passage of health insurance reform by posting Abba's "Waterloo" on Jim DeMented's Facebook page -- another major Obama victory slipped by unnoticed.
House approves huge changes to student loan program
By Daniel de Vise
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, March 22, 2010; A01
Legislation hailed by supporters as the most significant change to college student lending in a generation passed the House on Sunday night.
The student aid initiative, which House Democrats attached to their final amendments to the health-care bill, would overhaul the student loan industry, eliminating a $60 billion program that supports private student loans with federal subsidies and replacing it with government lending to students. The House amendments will now go to the Senate.
By ending the subsidies and effectively eliminating the middleman, the student loan bill would generate $61 billion in savings over 10 years, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.
Most of those savings, $36 billion, would go to Pell grants, funding an era of steady and predictable increases in the massive but underfunded federal aid program for needy students. Smaller portions would go toward reducing the deficit and to various Democratic priorities, including community colleges, historically black colleges and universities, and caps on loan payments.
Now -- hold onto your hats because here comes a big surprise:
House Republicans and lending industry lobbyists oppose the measure, calling it an unnecessary government takeover and envisioning a bumbling bureaucracy replacing efficient private-sector loan operations.
"Instead of making student loans more affordable or preserving choice, competition and innovation in the loan program, Democrats are taking money from struggling students' pockets to help pay for a government takeover of health care," said Rep. Brett Guthrie (Ky.), senior Republican on the House subcommittee that oversees higher education.
So-o-o-o-o: Which Republican butt do we kick next?!?!?!?!?!?