Senator Reid's Debt Ceiling Bill sure makes for some interesting reading. In a proposal full of plans to have someone else slash the budget later, this beautiful nugget certainly stands out:
a graduate or professional student shall not be eligible to receive a Federal Direct [Subsidized] Stafford loan
Well that's odd. I thought Republicans want to screw students. And I thought Democrats were proud to have fortified the student loan system by eliminating private middlemen.
Am I missing something here? Despite imposing sacrifice on students, Senator Reid's bill - supported by the President and a majority of Democrats in the House and Senate - makes no 'balancing' effort to raise revenue.
Instead, it relies on gimmicks like another debt commission, savings from winding down wars that the President has promised to continue, and a 'balanced' anti-fraud effort that splits its focus between tax enforcement and Medicare fraud on the one hand, and increased reviews of SSI disability recipients and unemployment benefit recipients, on the other hand.
And I'm supposed to be angry at the Democrats who refuse to vote Aye on this trash?
Update (8:55 PDT): A clarification on what, exactly, Senator Reid proposes to eliminate.
As it stands now, all students in financial need - grad, professional, undergrad - are entitled to take out the first $8500/year in federal loans without paying any interest until the day they graduate. After that $8500, the loan begins accruing interest on the day it is taken out.
Without access to subsidized loans, graduate and professional students would be required to pay interest on every dollar they take out, on the first day they take it out. For students in four-year programs, this will mean accruing thousands of dollars in extra debt by the time they graduate - which will of course be compounded over the years, potentially adding thousands more to the eventual total cost of the loan.