Senator Warren Needs More Allies In Congress Who Want To Help Students, Not Prey On Them

By now you’ve probably heard about Elizabeth Warren’s fantastic first piece of legislation, the Bank on Students Loan Fairness Act. Her goal is to lower student loan interest rates for next year from 3.4% to 0.75% — the same rate the government loans money to the banks through the Federal Reserve discount window. As of now, unless Congress takes action– other than drumming up faux scandals to deny President Obama a third term– student loan interest rates will double to 6.8% on July 1st.

Boehner and Cantor, the Republicans as a party, and the Wall Street bankers who fund them, have declared Senator Warren’s proposal a non-starter and have vowed to kill it. Last week Boehner shuffled it into John Kline’s Education and Workforce Committee, and Kline did exactly what he was told. The proposal was defeated 23-14, all the Republicans voting NO and all but one Democrat voting YES.

All the Blue America-endorsed candidates support Elizabeth Warren’s way of dealing with this problem and all of them would like to get into Congress and make sure her proposal eventually passes.

State Rep. Carl Sciortino is one of Senator Warren’s Massachusetts constituents and he’s running for the House seat being vacated by Ed Markey, a seat that includes towns like Cambridge, Waltham, Medford, and Framingham, all filled with college students. Carl is 34 and has been an enthusiastic proponent of Senator Warren’s approach. He knows that the future of the country lies with people going through school today.

“Our country has always taught its young people that hard work and education are keys to achieving the American dream,” he told us. “But for too many families the cost of higher education has become the subject of their nightmares. While Republicans in Washington try to weaken Wall Street regulations, progressive Democrats are working to give our students the same low interest rates as our banks. We have to get serious as a nation about ensuring that our younger generation has the same opportunities to succeed as our parents and grandparents. Senator Warren has put forward a smart and creative solution, and I look forward to supporting her efforts in Congress later this year.”

That’s right… later this year. There will be a special election in the fall to fill Ed Markey’s seat. So, like Nick Ruiz, Daylin Leach, Andy Hounshell and, of course, Alan Grayson, Carl can use some support to make sure a progressive agenda has the strongest possible allies.

We are all in this together,

Howie, for Digby, Amato and the Blue America Team