Student Loan Overhaul Seems Likely to Join Senate Health-Care Bill

[tekisui]

Source: Washington Post

Senate Democrats said Thursday that they are inclined to add an overhaul of the nation's student loan program to the final health-care bill.

The move would create a potential double victory for President Obama, who has championed both causes as among domestic priorities. And Senate Majority Whip Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) said Thursday, "There was a stronger feeling for including" the education proposal. Some senators disagreed with the strategy, Durbin said, adding that a final decision has yet to be reached.

Under the student loan proposal, subsidies that now support private lenders would be shifted to other student assistance programs, including Pell Grants for families struggling to afford college tuition. "Some of the things accomplished here are really going to help a lot of people across America," Durbin said.

Senate Budget Chairman Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) had been one of the chief opponents of the maneuver, for fear that it would provoke procedural challenges from Republicans. But he said the Senate parliamentarian had suggested in a preliminary ruling that combining the bills could work, provided Senate Democrats strike the right balance on cost.

"I'd say yes, we're leaning toward it," Conrad said.

He added that advocates of the student loan proposal would have to pare it down before the provisions could be added.

House Education and Labor Committee Chairman George Miller (D-Calif.), who has argued strenuously for including the student loan measure in the final bill, said Thursday, "Senators have a simple choice here: They can either choose to continue sending tens of billions of wasteful subsidies to lenders, or they can invest that money directly in students and families."

more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/11/AR2010031103144.html?hpid=topnews

[Confusious]

1. Student loans

More welfare for the corporations.

I say that as someone who gets Stafford loans.

[girl gone mad]

3. To an extent, yes..

because colleges simply raise costs when they know students have access to more funds, no matter the source. What's more, lenders are guaranteed to be paid back by the taxpayers if the borrower defaults. The whole system probably needs to be overhauled.

[Lyric]

2. Republicans don't care about "waste" when it's corporations and banks doing the "wasting."

After all, THAT waste gets funneled right back into their own campaigns. Money spent on cash-strapped students and poor people? Not so much.

The most sickening thing about the Publican party is that they never do ANYTHING for America unless they get to dip their fingers in the batter first.

[Demoiselle]

4. But I thought Durbin just said the Dems weren't supposed to vote for ANY amendments!