This seems positive:
Senate leaders say they have a deal on student loan legislation, pending approval by House Republicans, who have unexpectedly balked at Senate deals before.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) told reporters Tuesday there is an agreement on student loans and now the question is what type of legislative vehicle to use to pass it through Congress.
One option is to attach it to a two-year transportation authorization bill, which is nearing completion in Senate-House conference. A senior GOP aide said “odds and ends” remain to be resolved.
I guess all that remains is to see how Eric Cantor use the teahadist wing of the House to screw Boehner.
amk
what a load of goobledygook.
Baud
Potentially good news too FTA:
Harry Reid gets a lot of grief, but hell if I can think of any other job I’d like to have less than the one he has.
Breezeblock
Don’t Boners usually do the screwing?
Oh no, I din’t!
General Stuck
It seems like the scorched earth shit by the wingnuts, is giving them a tad of pause for overdoing it. They surrendered, pretty much, on holding up so many of Obama’s judge nominations, and now this, that should be a no brainer in an election year. The last thing the GOP needs is a bunch of pissed off college kids lining up again to vote against them. Instead of out shotgunning brewskies and chasing skirt.
Odie Hugh Manatee
Orange Julius is going to be thoroughly whipped by the frothing Teahadists in the House. It’s going to look like a massive outbreak of rabies.
But with Creamsicle colored froth!
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
The AOS* is gonna have a rough couple of days. The teahadist wing will not take any of this well.
*Actual Orange Satan.
Turgidson
Therein lies the rub.
…and is it really unexpected at this point when the Teabaggers blow up a deal? I came to expect that a long time ago.
BGinCHI
Do we know what the “deal” is? Good or bad compromise?
General Stuck
@Turgidson:
Boehner will just have to eat another shit sandwich and accept democrat votes to pass it. Like he did with the debt ceiling deal.
waynski
Hmmm. Let’s see. Pass a transportation/student loan bill (take credit and call Obama a dick), hold the AG in contempt (suggest Obama is corrupt), declare Obama’s signature bill unconstitutional (shout from the rooftops that Obama’s incompetent). I could write the script myself but I’m sure Frank Luntz beat me to it.
Elizabelle
Happy news. Put this on Annie Laurie’s open thread too.
She pulled it off!
Gloria Bromell Tinubu swamped her Blue Dog opponent in winning the SC Democratic primary for 7th District congressional seat. (Coastal northern South Carolina and surrounding area; Myrtle Beach, etc.)
This on the same day Teresa Sullivan was re-instated as president of the University of Virginia.
You go grrrls!
Raven
@BGinCHI: Huff Post has a rundown.
Raven
Nora Ephron is dead at 71.
Craig
If there is a deal, then it doesn’t damn well matter what “legislative vehicle” they use. Call the vote!
If GOP leadership is fretting over how to finesse this thing through the rules of order, it is because they can not deliver their caucus. Which of course means there is no deal at all; no more than if I sell you the Brooklyn Bridge.
Maude
@BGinCHI:
I don’t think we know anything yet. I’m not sure what’s in the transportation bill.
Here in NJ, NJ Transit had to cut 5 bus lines.
We have serious transportation issues and it’s not getting better.
It used to take me 15 or so minutes each way to the supermarket on the para transit bus. Now, they took one route away and it takes an hour to get to the store. I have trouble being on the bus an hour because the pain med hits the inner ear sometimes and I get queasy and almost had to get off the bus a couple of times.
I will have to pay an extra fare and take a reserved bus instead of the regular local. For me, it’s worth it, but still.
For the seniors, this is a real pain in the butt.
A few weeks ago, Christie took money out of the public transportation fund to cover the budget deficit.
Forum Transmitted Disease
@Baud: Obama’s.
Baud
@Forum Transmitted Disease:
I don’t envy what Obama has to deal with, but as President he gets a lot more support from various places than Reid does plus the trappings of the office.
Reid has to deal with the Senate every day.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@Raven: It’s sad isn’t it. OT – I thought of you when I pulled in behind a fire engine red pick up with tags that read LIL BIT.
And I’m still in shock from burnsie’s post last night that read “squeeee”though I suspect I will recover.
Raven
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): She could have used to be hosed down after our hot evening walk! It’s amazing how much her name comes up in everyday conversation!
Raven
@Maude: OK, no one wants to look it up. Buncha lazy dopes:
“About $5 billion of the measure’s $6 billion cost would come from Democratic pension-related proposals, including a change in how companies compute the money they must set aside to fund their pensions. The change would make their contributions more consistent year to year and in effect lower them – which business desires – and result in fewer corporate tax deductions for those payments.
In addition, fees that companies pay to have their pensions insured by the quasi-government Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. would rise to reflect increases in inflation.
The remaining funds would come from a GOP plan to limit federal subsidies for Stafford loans for undergraduates to six years. Currently, the government charges no interest while students are still in school, even if it takes them longer than six years to graduate.”
Keith G
It may be the case that now that the Hispanic vote is definitely in the dumpster (thank you Mitt)even the dumber GOPers realize the need to not fuck off most college students and their parents.
amk
@Raven: Seems to be a decent compromise.
mclaren
This is bogus. There can’t possibly be a deal on reforming debt-slavery student loans because piling up Himalayan mountains of debt on unemployable students represents the thin edge of the wedge to destroy the middle class. First, students become lifelong debt slaves, then the supreme court legalized actual slavery (conveniently non-racially biased — watch Ezra Klein praise the return of “unbiased race-slavery — proof that America is moving forward!”), then the same massive debt -> legalized slavery for unrepayable debt -> everyone in the middle class gets into massive debt.
Coming soon: return of the pharaohs.
maven
Harry Reid? hahaha
General Stuck
This seems positive, also too
Not having a teevee, I am oblivious to pol ads being slung around. I think I read a comment here today, claiming Obama is losing ground in battlegrounds states, not twoo, Gracie.
And for all the hand wringing left leaning pundits out there complaining about Obama’s attacks on Romney over Bain Capital, the Kenyan Usurper again shows his fighting smarter spirit is alive and doing just fine.
And yes, I am an Obot. And apologize to no man nor aminal for that. Sit Ubu, sit. Good dog!
Valdivia
@General Stuck:
thanks for pointing this part of the poll out. I always trust the man’s instincts in terms of how to run a campaign.
john b
@Raven: what about if someone goes from undergrad to grad school? tough titties?
mclaren
@General Stuck:
Or the numbers may simply show that the massively fundamentalist Christian base of the Republican party can’t bring themselves to vote for a Mormon, whose religion they consider a satanic cult.
Either way, given Romney’s massive negatives, it seems very unlikely he’ll be able to pull this one out. The Republicans are basically asking independents to vote for Mr. Burns from THE SIMPSONS and Republicans to vote for a person they consider Reverend Jim Jones. Not a good electoral strategy.
John Weiss
Eric Cantor is a dick. Not in a good way.
burnspbesq
@mclaren:
The triumph of hope over experience: I keep thinking that someday you’ll know what you’re talking about. Alas, today is not that day.
The most a student can borrow in subsidized Stafford loans for four years of undergrad is around $20K (I know this because the kid and I sat through Stafford loan entrance counseling last week). The subsidy is 340 basis points. Do the math. The difference is about $57/mo. That’s not chump change for a 20-something making $35K a year, but it’s not the difference between freedom and slavery.
burnspbesq
@amk:
It’s a dog’s breakfast, but if that’s what takes to get this done, hand me a fork and a bottle of Tapatio.