Lenders Appeal to Democrats on (Student Loan) Subsidy Cuts

[rcdean]

Source: NYT

With the House set to take up legislation this week that would sharply cut subsidies to student loan companies by about $19 billion, lenders are trying to do something they have barely had to bother with in recent years: appeal to Democrats.
...

The lenders have assembled an armada of Democratic lobbyists and communications specialists. Sallie Mae, for example, hired former Senator John B. Breaux, a Louisiana Democrat, as well as Mark Schuermann, a former senior aide to former Representative Harold E. Ford Jr., a Tennessee Democrat who lost his bid for a Senate seat last year.
...

The tactics are new for an industry that for years relied on its close ties to Republicans. But President Bush broke with lenders with his budget this year when he proposed cutting subsidies to loan companies by nearly $16 billion over five years.

Moving to advance Democratic plans to overhaul the student loan system, the House plans to vote this week on legislation that, in addition to cutting subsidies by about $19 billion, would increase the size of Pell grants to poor students, cut the interest rates paid by student borrowers and cap students’ monthly loan payments at 15 percent of their discretionary income.
...

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/11/washington/11lobby.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

---

The con artists--including some dems--are out in force trying to convince everyone that green is red.

Our party should be ashamed that it has permitted the pillaging of the once very healthy fed student loan system without raising holy hell. Now they have a chance to correct the crime, and it looks like some key figures are wavering.