In 10 Days The Republicans Will Force Student Loan Rates To Double

This week, PPP released a survey showing that Republicans-- plus 4 New Dems who voted with them (Jared Polis, Dan Maffei, Joe Garcia and multimillionaire Scott Peters)-- are way on the wrong side of public opinion when it comes to education. (Rumors have been floating that Obama's backward and overly corporate Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, actually encouraged the 4 New Dems to cross the aisle and vote with the Republicans against the best interests of education policy-- which would be par for the course for Duncan.)

The national poll shows that an overwhelming 83% of Americans want to keep student loan rates at 3.4% or to adopt Elizabeth Warren's plan to lower them to the same 0.75% that the big banks pay. Even better, three-quarters of voters say they would be less likely to vote for their Representative if he or she voted to double rates to 6.8%, or allowed them to increase to a maximum of 8.5%, which is the Republican plan that was proposed by John Kline (R-MN) and passed with only 8 Republicans dissenting.

And so do 195 Members of Congress. 195-- that's the number of Members who have signed Joe Courtney's discharge petition that would force Boehner and Cantor, no matter how against it they are, to schedule an up-or-down vote for H.R. 1595, which prevents the rate from doubling by extending the current 3.4% rate for another two years. I don't see a single Republican on that list, although I do all 4 of the New Dems who voted for the Republican bill that world force rates to rise dramatically: Scott Peters (CA), Jared Polis (CO), Dan Maffei (NY) and Joe Garcia (FL). They need 218 signatures to get Boehner off his fat ass.

With Peters finally aboard, it looks like the whole California Democratic delegation is on this now. One of them, John Garamendi, formerly a University of California Regent as well as a Cal State Trustee, who has UC Davis in his district, warned that "If Congress fails to stop the Stafford loan rate from doubling by July 1st, it will take money out of the pockets of working families and students, including 11,000 students at UC Davis. Those stopping this vote from happening should be ashamed. We live in a country where half of the children from wealthy families complete college, but only one in ten children from the poorest families are able to get their degree. The Stafford loan is a vital lifeline for those trying to bridge the achievement gap, making the American Dream more accessible to all... If you believe like I do that college should be accessible to every qualified student, that a well-educated workforce creates a more resilient economy, then you should join me in calling on the House Republican leadership to give the Student Loan Relief Act the up-or-down vote it deserves. Education creates our greatest return on investment.”

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Boehner Comes Through For China Again-- Defeats Made In America Proposal

China made a really good investment by donating to the Chamber of Commerce when they ran a big international effort to illegally scoop up vast sums of foreign cash to help replace Nancy Pelosi with John Boehner as Speaker. Boehner is the worst patsy for China's economic agenda in Congress (not counting Miss McConnell). And Boehner came through for his Beijing financiers again yesterday.

During a little remarked on debate over a bipartisan bill, H.R. 678, to amend the Reclamation Project Act of 1939 by authorizing the Secretary of the Interior to contract for the development of small conduit hydropower at Bureau facilities, John Garamendi (D-CA) tried to get the Republicans to include language that would require, when practicable, all materials used for conduit hydropower generation be manufactured in the United States. Sounds simple, right? Not when John Boehner is in charge.

All Republicans were instructed to vote NO and Garamendi's commonsense proposal lost 194-226. Only two Republicans cared enough about American manufacturing jobs to stand up to Boehner and vote with the Democrats-- Walter Jones (R-NC) and Jimmy Duncan (R-TN). The Democrat running for the seat Boehner is occupying, Andy Hounshell, is an Ohio steel worker at a plant in Middletown, in the heart of Boehner's district. "I admire Congressman Garamendi for always putting working people first," Hounshell told us this afternoon. "If he proposal passed there probably would have been good-paying jobs created for American workers right here in western Ohio. I would have voted for the proposal and one of the reasons I'm running is because John Boehner never does. Whose side is he on? There's one way to turn this economy around and spread around the benefits across all levels of society-- creating good-paying jobs. Boehner should have done what those two other Republicans, Jones and Duncan did-- pushed to pass Garamendi's proposal and pushed for more jobs right here in the U.S.A."



“Our first priority as Representatives of the American people must be creating more American jobs,” said Congressman Garamendi. “Over the past two decades, the manufacturing sector has lost nine million jobs-- in large part due to unwise public policy. However, manufacturing is roaring back with approximately half a million new jobs created in the last three years.”

Garamendi added, “We can do so much more by improving education, research, infrastructure, and adapting to changing conditions. The very first step though is simple: when the government invests in public works projects, including hydropower, that money should go toward employing American workers. The businesses are ready, the workers are ready, it’s time for Congress to step up to the plate, so we can Make It In America once again.”

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