NYT-Obama's Plan To Cut Out Subsidies To Private Lenders And Offer Direct Aid - Where's Cable News?

[Median Democrat]

Where is the outrage directed at private lenders getting risk free profits at the expense of taxpayers? Where is our liberal news shows Maddow, Olbermann and Ed? Where's CNN? The NY Times has this great article on an ongoing political fight to cut out the private lenders (who had to be bailed out) and simply offer direct aid to needy students. This plan is meeting opposition from the student lending industry, Republicans, and some Democrats.

What happened to the outrage at lenders? It appears that cable news, even the so-called liberal shows, are obeying their corporate masters and holding back on expressions of outrage to focus on teabagging or expressing outrage on decisions after the fact.

Here is cable news' chance to get in front of an issue! Where are they? Or, is the marching orders to focus on decisions that have already been made or to give even more publicity to the corporate sponsored teabag protests?

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/13/us/politics/13student.html?ref=global-home

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WASHINGTON — The private student lending industry and its allies in Congress are maneuvering to thwart a plan by President Obama to end a subsidized loan program and redirect billions of dollars in bank profits to scholarships for needy students.

The plan is the main money-saving component of Mr. Obama’s education agenda, which includes a sweeping overhaul of financial aid programs. The Congressional Budget Office says replacing subsidized loans made by private banks with direct government lending would save $94 billion over the next decade, money that Mr. Obama would use to expand Pell grants for the poorest students.

But the proposal has ignited one of the most fractious policy fights this year.

Because it would make spending on Pell grants mandatory, limiting Congressional control, powerful appropriators are balking at it. Republicans say the plan is proof that Mr. Obama is trying to vastly expand government. Democrats are divided, with lawmakers from districts where lenders are big employers already drawing battle lines.

At the same time, the private loan industry, which would have collapsed without a government rescue last year, has begun lobbying aggressively to save a program that has generated giant profits with very little risk.

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