Yesterday was actually big victory for progressivism. Not in health care, but in student loan reform. Finally, a wasteful and worthless corporate welfare program was eliminated. The taxpayer dollars that were being thrown away on private profits will now be redirected to help low income students attend college and pay down the debt. This is [...]

It looks like Kent Conrad (D-ND), who chairs the Senate Budget Committee through which any reconciliation bill must pass, scored a nice, little, special deal for his home state as part of the student loan reform portion of the reconciliation package. From the summary of the bill: Section 2213. Agreements with State-Owned Banks. This section [...]

With little public notice or fanfare, the federal government has been providing financial institutions involved in the student loan business with a bailout projected to be over $100 billion: 2007-2008 2008-2009 2009-2010 TOTAL Loan Purchase Commitment Program $997,945,088 $48,538,600,137 $2,540,422,115 $52,076,967,340.00 Loan Participation Purchase Program $33,359,067,388 $25,565,704,156 $58,924,771,544.00 Asset-Backed Commercial Paper $31,540,088,059 $31,540,088,059.00 This makes [...]