One of the best things about the reconciliation bill is that it will have a broad impact on student loan reform and getting the government back in the business of lending its own money to student borrowers instead of going through private lenders which essentially take the money, mark it up, and then hand it off to the students who need it. It’s a plan that makes sense, and takes some of the risk out of student loans and makes them easier for students to get, not to mention more likely the students will actually pay them off and the government will get its money back before the private lender goes under:

President Obama’s “no-brainer” suggestion that the government get back into the direct lending business has such obvious fiscal merit that you’d think it would melt the heart of the most obdurate conservative. But it’s getting resistance anyway — which is proof that there’s more than money at stake here. This proposal threatens two of the conservatives’ most cherished goals; and they’re willing to waste as much taxpayer money as it takes to keep us from backsliding away from the progress they’ve made.

The first goal is preserving privatization. The conservatives have been telling us for 40 years that there’s nothing the government can do that the free market can’t do better. Of course, most of us really get it now that “privatization” really means “paying 25% more for the same stuff and letting the private sector skim off the profit while sticking us with the messes.” While privatization has worked well in some areas, it’s been a disaster in others — and this is one of them.

The conservatives are demanding that we pay a totally unnecessary premium for our student loan programs because a) their banking friends are pocketing a fortune off the program and b) we must not ever question the proposition that the private sector can do this better. It’s just bad form, bad taste, and bad politics to suggest otherwise, even when it’s patently obvious that the actual goods or services we’re getting cost considerably more — and are produced with less oversight and lower standards — than what we used to get directly from the government. Therefore: Obama’s brazen suggestion that we need to bring this program back into the public fold is outright heresy. If Americans figure out that the government really can do this one thing better than the private sector does, this piece of the conservative gospel could be called into question in other areas as well. The right will not stand for this.

No, they likely won’t – but then again, the right has never been interested in what’s best for the American people – only the pocketbooks of their friends and maintaining the privileged status quo.

[ Student Loans: The Right's Hidden Agenda ]
Source: The Campaign for America’s Future

Last week, the day we had fought for for years finally came to pass – a real, comprehensive health care reform bill went from being a bill to a law. There were plenty of things about the bill to like and some things about the bill to dislike, but the important fact is that we’re now on a playing field to move forward with additional health care improvements for the American people unlike any we were on for years in the past.

Not only will this bill wind up extending benefits to millions of Americans and eventually mandate that all Americans have access to health care and health insurance, it contains tons of provisions that take effect immediately that Americans will come to take for granted in the coming years. We will – very shortly – come to the position where Americans will take the benefits they now have – significant improvements in our overall health care – for granted, and the same people who were in the streets shouting racist slurs at Congressmen will probably be the same folks benefiting the most from the expanded access to care and restrictions against pre-existing conditions. The “keep your government hands off my Medicare” crowd – of which they’re largely the same people anyway.

Regardless, this is a huge moment for all Americans, and a huge triumph for progressives and any American with the best interests of the American people at heart. The bill is now law, and even though right-wing crazies rushed to the courthouse to try and get the law overturned, and while tea party wingnuts are talking about repeal, the bill is law and the accomplishment has been made when everyone said that we couldn’t do it.

It’s indeed a proud day.

[ Obama Signs Health Care Overhaul Into Law ]
Source: TruthOut