Sorry for the Winship-like exclamation point in my title, but this is really good news, I’d think most of you would agree (even Duane Roberts.) This morning President Obama fulfilled one of his more progressive campaign promises, and signed a sweeping student loan reform bill that cuts profiteering banks out of the gravy train they’ve had for so long as middlemen, gouging students with exorbitant fees and interest.
The special interests were fighting hard against this, with the usual technique of preparing and pushing a phony compromise bill, and last I had heard they had not only all the Republicans on board, but six usual-suspect “conservative” Democrats from big-lender states. But thanks to pressure from us progressives and netroots, the strong bill passed and was signed today, and as Firedoglake enumerates:
- Low-income students will have better access to education through increases in Pell grants.
- More students able to afford college means more money for schools, which keeps costs down and improves the quality of our institutions.
- Students will now borrow directly from the government, cutting Wall Street out of the picture and avoiding lifetimes of debt from fees and interest rates that banks use to milk students dry.
Here’s Second Lady Dr. Jill Biden explaining it all for you:
Onward to more glorious progressive victories! Next up, financial reform, immigration reform, and jobs jobs jobs! Republicans join in or get out of the way!
Hey Vern! Looks like your bullshit’s shut down the OC Progressive. Blank screens since the weekend. Good goin’!
Too bad I am myself an inveterate dillwad.
Oh hey there Golightly! I thought I overheard your faint, gay tread.
The OCP’s got some kinda technical thing going, you gotta hit refresh a couple times. Thanks for reading that fine blog!
Now if President Barack Obama, your favorite warmonger, immediately withdrew all U.S. troops from Iraq and Afghanistan, the money currently being wasted on these worthless wars could be used to guarantee every student in this country can get a tuition-free education at a public college, university, or technical trade school of their choosing.
I can’t help find amusement over the fact that corrupt Democratic Party politicians in Congress tell the public that there is no money for education, but when Obama demands they fork over the dough to bomb Afghanistan even harder — as he did fairly recently — they bend over and kiss his rump.
I don’t remember saying anything positive about Obama’s escalation in Afghanistan, Mr. Pissy-Pants. In fact I’ve been promoting candidates like Bill Hedrick who are going to force an end to that war. This article was about one good piece of legislation the Dems and Obama have pulled off, and as I expected you can’t even see any positive in that. I suspect most of your Green compadres would disagree with you.
Do you know how many Democrats in Congress have been opposing the escalation? I think it’s most of them, and more and more are turning against it. But you can’t see that in your blind Dem-hate. You paint them all with the same brush. Very unhelpful. You’re going to end up with nobody listening to you.
Vern Nelson wrote:
[Extra text deleted]
> This article was about one good piece
> of legislation the Dems and Obama have
> pulled off, and as I expected you
> can’t even see any positive in that.
> I suspect most of your Green compadres
> would disagree with you.
Why be giddy about having the government be a loan shark for students when there is plenty of money to give everyone a tuition-free public university education?
> Do you know how many Democrats in Congress
> have been opposing the escalation? I think
> it’s most of them, and more and more are
> turning against it.
I’ll take them seriously when they stop posing for photos with Obama to put in their campaign literature and start outing him for the war criminal he is.
> But you can’t see that
> in your blind Dem-hate. You paint them
> all with the same brush.
It’s kind of difficult not too when they all tend to march in lock-step every time Wall Street wants more tax money to bail out their businesses.
> Very unhelpful. You’re going to end up with
> nobody listening to you.
I guess you’re not used to someone aggressively criticizing the Democratic Party from the left. Shouldn’t take anything I say personally, however.