The political battle over President Obama’s plan to keep student loan interest rates from skyrocketing escalated as Senate Republicans blocked a Democratic proposal to tax wealthier earners to pay for it.
Republicans stopped the effort with a filibuster, even as some in the GOP view this as a politically risky move at a time when middle-class families continue to struggle to afford college. Rates for 7 million new undergraduate student loans are set to double to 6.8% on July 1 if Congress fails to act.
The vote was 52-45, failing to reach the 60-vote threshold needed to overcome the GOP filibuster. All Republicans voting opposed the effort, except Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine, who voted present. Democrats voted to advance the proposal.
Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, said the standoff could be resolved easily if Obama would negotiate an alternative plan. Republicans back a House-passed proposal that would gut a public health and prevention fund in Obama’s new healthcare law to pay the costs of keeping government-backed student loan rates low – a non-starter for Senate Democrats.
So you can have your student loans at decent rates, we just can't ever have our precious, privileged rich people pay for it. Instead, we have to eliminate health care for poor people. Hey, if the poor useless bastards die, they're no longer a drain on the economy, right? Self-solving problem!
And Mitch is betting that not a single Republican will be punished for this vote, or the dozens of other filibusters in the last four years. No, he's betting you'll take it out on President Obama and Harry Reid.
He's counting on it, actually.
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