Progress on Student Loan Reform April 27, 2009
Posted by Dwight Furrow in Current Events, Dwight Furrow's Posts, politics.Tags: bipartisanship, budget reconciliation, student loan reform
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I argued recently that reforming our bone-headed student loan program may face an uphill battle in congress due to opposition from Republicans and conservative Democrats, who want the banking industry to take a middleman’s cut while providing no essential service.
Reforming the health care system may be difficult for the very same reason. The Republicans will filibuster the reform in order to protect insurance company profits and a few conservative Democrats will likely vote with them.
But there was some promising news last week.
Democrats voted to use the budget reconciliation process if bi-partisan reform bills cannot be passed, which will prevent Republicans from filibustering both bills. There is probably enough Democratic support to pass both bills without conservative support.
Also, with the defection of Arlen Specter to the Democratic party and with the imminent seating of Al Franken, the Dems are now up to the 60 vote filibuster-proof majority. It remains to be seen if the Dems can actually get all 60 people to vote the same way on a piece of legislation, but at least on paper things look good for them.
Yes. My glass is half empty this morning. Spector has already announced he is not a slam dunk for cloture votes. And the Democrats still have Bayh and Nelson to deal with.