SPEAKER PELOSI'S STUDENT LOAN BILL PASSES WITH A HUGE MAJORITY OF REPUBLICANS JOINING ALL THE DEMOCRATS

I don't have any kids in college or in high school. I became aware of the issue of high interest rates on student loans because a friend of mine, Robert Rodriguez, was running for Congress against the architect of GOP policy in that area, Buck McKeon. McKeon's defense of interest rates so high that they impinged on the ability of many people from working class backgrounds to even go to college, was simple. If you don't give lenders-- lenders who, by the way, gave gigantic bribes campaign donations to McKeon and his Republican cronies-- rates high enough to incentivize them, they would just start loaning money to people who want to buy cars instead of go to college. It's logic like this that led to Republicans losing their majority in both chambers of Congress in November.

Part of Speaker Pelosi's First Hundred Hours Agenda, this bill passed with the widest margin so far. Only the 71 of the most reactionary and deranged Republican kooks stuck with their crazed leadership to vote no. It passed 356-71 and will subsidize about five and a half million need-based college students annually. Rates will drop from 6.8% to 3.4% in stages over a 5 year period. The Bush Regime says they'll be using their veto pen on this one too, since more students in college means less cannon fodder for Bush's wars. All Democrats voted yes, as did 124 Republicans. The 71 selfish and corrupt monstrosities who voted against this bill reads like a Who's Who of the Most Hate-filled Right Wingers in America; a sampling:

Roy Blunt (MO)
Tom Tancredo (CO)
Denny Hastert (IL)
John Doolittle (CA)
Patrick McHenry (NC)
Eric Cantor (VA)
Lynn Westmoreland (GA)
Virginia Foxx (NC)
Sue Myrick (NC)
Jim Sensenbrenner (WI)
Michele Bachmann (MN)
Phil Gingrey (GA)
Joe Barton (TX)
Tom Feeney (FL)
John Carter (TX)
John Boehner (OH)
Wally Herger (CA)
Bill Sali (ID)
Mean Jean Schmidt (OH)
John Kline (MN)
Pete Sessions (TX)
Steve King (IA)
Brian Bilbray (CA)
Buck McKeon (CA)
Jerry Lewis (CA)
Marsha Blackburn (TN)
Marilyn Musgrave (CO)
Mike Pence (IN)
Howdy Doody (FL)
Darrell Issa (CA)...

It must really suck to be Boehner, Blunt and Howdy Doody these days!