Student Loan Arranger Rides Again

The House overwhelmingly passed a bill to remove private lenders from the student loan industry.

The House voted 253-171 for the bill that, if also passed by the Senate and signed into law, would effectively end the role of private lenders in making student loans. Instead, the government would become the sole direct lender for student loans.

The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office said the bill would save more than $80 billion over 10 years by halting the subsidies to private lenders.

The House bill includes increased spending for Pell Grants for low- and middle-income students, as well as more money for community colleges, early-learning programs, school renovations, and colleges and universities that historically serve minorities.

Party line vote of course, with 4 Democrats against the measure and 6 Republicans for (including Joseph Cao of Louisiana, who's turning out to be a better Democrat than some of the Democrats at this point.) Republicans it seems are more interested in protecting the financial industry's right to profit off of student loans and for the government to waste billions to pay the banks to make these loans than to make college affordable, or saving taxpayers money. Saving $80 billion over ten years? The GOP is simply not interested in fiscal responsibility, you see.

I wonder how this will fare in the Senate. I'm betting the Republicans will filibuster it.