First you attack the seniors, then you attack the students, and nobody screams

I just read a summary from CPB on the President's budget for education, and he is going to set student interest rates to the market rate. This is bad for several reasons:

1. Sallie Mae is government corporation, and whatever money they make is extra. They don't need higher interest, and making lower interest is a good idea.
2. Tuition has risen so much at state schools over the past few years that college is becoming increasingly unaffordable. The least the government can do is decrease the interest rate which will save middle class families millions of dollars, but putting the rate at such a risk is a terrible idea.
3. The only motivation I can see to tying Sallie Mae interest rates to the market rate is that it will now be easier for large banks to steal a significantly larger share of the student loan market, by offering "discounts" which people will flock to. If everyone uses private banks than it will make it easy for Republicans (or as seems more and more likely, Democrats) to attack and dismantle Sallie Mae.
4. Eliminating Sallie Mae (which currently gives decent interest rates) and forcing people to go to banks which might then raise their rates for students will give a lot of free money to the big banks that practically own our government.

The Democrats ran last year on a platform to defend the middle class, it was practically the theme of their national convention. "Trust us, we are the defenders of social security, the givers of Medicare and affordable education" yet the past week has seen the Democrats leading the attacks on both education and Social Security.

If there ever was an appropriate time for a third party that represents the interests of average Americans to appear, the time is now.

BEDA 2013 post number 10!