Whose Government?

One of the bright spots in the recent SOTU speech was about stopping subsidies to private student loan lenders. This practice is a huge ripoff for everybody, students and taxpayers alike. Cutting out the “middleman” could free up billions of dollars that could be loaned to students directly by government. Or we could just subsidize education, period. But that’s another rant.

Well, apparently loan industry lobbyists have brought the plan to a stop.

All together: ARRRRRGHHHH!

Meanwhile, Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL) has put a “blanket hold” on at least 70 of President Obama’s nominations, meaning the nominations can’t be voted on by the Senate until the Dems put together a 60-vote majority. Apparently the Senator is holding the nominations hostage until he gets two lucrative programs for Alabama: a $40 billion contract to build air-to-air refueling tankers and an explosive device testing lab.

It’s not clear to me how one Senator could put a hold on nominations, but several sources are reporting this.

I may have more to say about this later. Right now I’m just feeling pure disgust.

Update: Ezra Klein explains how the “hold” thing works.