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--- Begin Message --- -Caveat Lector- Children of the poor who seek an education to improve their lot in life are sold into lifelong indentured servitude by that redneck nobility better known as our "government" ...
http://www.tompaine.com/feature2.cfm/ID/3113
Giving potential extra profits of $1.7 billion to
makers of government-subsidized student loanswww.ctrl.org DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply.
A bill intended to help disabled people return to the workplace seemed certain of overwhelming approval by the House and Senate. That's why special-interests ambushed it.
On reaching the House floor in October, it was without debate suddenly amended to bestow $1.7 billion in potential new profits on makers of subsidized student loans.
The biggest of these lenders, Sallie Mae, which stood to gain $692 million, "retained three former members of Congress as lobbyists and spent $1.1 million on lobbying during the first six months of this year alone," Juliet Eilperin disclosed in the Washington Post.
Of the $1.1 million, Sallie Mae's executive vice president, Larry O'Toole, told her, nearly $350,000 funded student seminars and a program to reduce the incidence of defaults on loans at historically black colleges. But hey, what's a $1.1 million investment in a possible $692 million benefit?
The subsidies are incentives to lenders to let student borrow at favorable rates. Currently, they're based on the interest rates on Treasury bills. But because the lenders borrow at more volatile commercial rates, O'Toole said, they've suffered losses warranting a "long overdue" correction. The amendment would link the subsidies to commercial rates so that the taxpayers would take a hit when those rates rise and a gain when they fall.
The White House Office of Management and Budget and the Congressional Budget Office did not foresee losses to the government.
Why, then, one may wonder, did Sallie Mae spend $1.1 million on lobbying? By contrast, Eilperin pointed out, the Education and Treasury departments say that "a spike upward in commercial interest rates would cost taxpayers dearly."
Terming the $692 million profit estimate "an outrageous number," O'Toole told the reporter, "I've never seen us receiving profits as a result" of the amendment. Rather, it "allows us to stabilize our financing for the future." The Public Interest Research Group's associate for higher education didn't buy this, saying, "It's a special-interest giveaway that shifts potential risk to the taxpayers."
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