Obama's big blow to banks: Student loan reform

By Noel Anderson

9:08 AM on 03/29/2010

Read More: Barack Obama, College Aid, Education, Health Care Reform, Higher Education, Student Loans

While Tea Party members were hurling racial and anti-gay slurs on the steps of the Capitol building protesting the supposed "government takeover" of health care last week, Congressional Democrats were working behind the scenes with the Obama administration to also overhaul student lending. In September last year, I wrote that the House of Representatives voted along partisan lines, 257 votes to 171, to take private lenders out of the loan business and make the government the primary source of student loans. This direct loan program was touted as the cornerstone of President Obama's education reform agenda.