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The latest from the campaign trail:

Republican Tom Cotton said during an Arkansas U.S. Senate debate on Tuesday that “Obamacare nationalized the student loan industry.” The first-term congressman added, “That’s right, Obamacare grabbed money to pay for its own programs and took that choice away from you.”

Huh. Does Cotton really think this is a winning issue? I mean, it has the virtue of being kinda sorta semi-true, which is a step up for Cotton, but why would his constituents care? Does Cotton think they’re deeply invested in the old system, where their tax dollars would go to big banks, who would then make tidy profits by doling out risk-free student loans that the federal government guaranteed?

That never made any sense. It would be like paying banks to distribute Social Security checks. What’s the point? The new student loan system saves a lot of money by making the loans directly, and that’s something that fiscal conservatives should appreciate. Instead, they’ve spent the past four years tearing their hair out over the prospect of Wall Street banks being shut out of the free money business. Yeesh.