Harry Reid sent a letter to Mitch McConnell today announcing what we’ve all known – that the Senate will move forward with a reconciliation sidecar bill to fix elements of the health care package already passed.

Why should the government support the failed business model of Sallie Mae and other student loan finance companies like Citi and JPMorgan Chase? Why isn’t that money going to help students pay for their education?

That looks like a major departure from my last whip count. That’s because there’s been a major development. House leaders have given up on trying to please Bart Stupak and will try to pass a bill without him and his bloc.

Remember all those great list building exercises that Harry Reid and Dick Durbin engaged in? You know, the ones where they told you how much they support the public option, and asked you to fork over your email for their polls? Ah, memories. Now they’re whipping against the public option — and students.

Sign the petition — tell the Senate to pass the damn student loan bill NOW and just for once say “no” to Citibank and JP Morgan.

It’s official. The Texas School Board is close to overtaking George W. Bush as the single most embarrassing thing about the state. Even as a panel of educators laid out a vision Wednesday for national standards for public schools, the Texas school board was going in a different direction, holding hearings on changes to its [...]

Conrad doesn’t want student loan reform to pass. Why? Well, because the student lending industry has jobs in North Dakota. Fifty-seven, to be exact. Blanche Lincoln, Jim Webb, Mark Warner, Tom Carper and the Nelson twins are helping him, because they’ve got jobs in their states too. From companies with deep pockets, private jets and personal golf courses to keep up.

With little public notice or fanfare, the federal government has been providing financial institutions involved in the student loan business with a bailout projected to be over $100 billion. With the federal government now helping to provide the financing for 80 percent of the “private” market for FFEL loans, it is ridiculous to classify it as anything other than a massive corporate welfare system.

Looking to regain the high ground on ethics reform, House Democrats banned budget earmarks for private companies and dared their Republican counterparts to do the same.

The next attack the McCarthyites have planned is on U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, for once saying in an amicus curiae brief that it’s possible following the Constitution will make it harder to detain potential terrorists.

Good.