The New Republic isn't the favorite magazine of participants on dKos. But on p. 7 of the June 18 issue, TRB lays out how the college-loan scandal is the result of a conservative legislative victory.
It seems that President Bill Clinton proposed cutting the privae lenders out of the college loan program. Having them there makes no sense; the govenement takes the risk and subsidizes the lenders.
Conservatives in Congress managed to block the reform. Instead, direct loans were available as one track among many.
The results after the jump.
After an early fast climb the number of direct loans leveled off. Wingnuts cheered. TRB quotes the then director of Free Enerprise Fund who boasted that the colleges who dropped out of the direct lending program proved the superiority of the private lenders.
Only it now turns out that the private lenders success came not through superior efficency but through superior graft.
(The man can write.)
The article can be found at TRB if you have a subscriptiuon. (I got there via Google, but I couldn't get back directly. Weird!)