Cox News Service

House Democrats to Vote on Cutting Student Loans (Cox News Service)

...Michael Dannenberg, director of the Education Policy Program at the New America Foundation, said the federal government has wasted "billions of dollars" each year on excess lender subsidies. "Financial aid should be helping students, not banks," he said.

The home foreclosure crisis slamming into the nation's neighborhoods is having the effect of about "one Hurricane Katrina per month," James K. Galbraith, an economist with the University of Texas at Austin, said Friday at a forum examining the credit crisis.

In the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in the fall of 2005, nearly 275,000 Gulf Coast residents were forced to move into group shelters, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Economists who recently completed a study for the… more

WASHINGTON - Before the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, Ken Bacon was a lonely voice calling on White House policymakers to consider the possibility of a major refugee crisis as Iraqis sought sanctuary from the war.For three years, Bacon, president of Refugees International, a Washington-based advocacy group, was proved wrong. In fact, about 300,000 Iraqi refugees returned home after the regime of Saddam Hussein was toppled.The tide began to reverse, however, after Sunni insurgents bombed… more

WASHINGTON - Attorney General Alberto Gonzales rebuffed calls for his resignation Tuesday as lawmakers demanded answers about the White House's role in the firing of U.S. attorneys across the country...Also last week, the administration dealt with the fallout from the federal conviction of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, former chief of staff for Vice President Cheney for lying to FBI agents investigating the disclosure of a CIA operative.The verdict came as the administration scrambled in the wake… more

WASHINGTON - With the average cost of college soaring 40 percent over the last five years, Democrats are hoping to relieve millions of loan-saddled graduates by halving interest rates on their student loans.The House will vote Wednesday on a proposal to cut the rate on federally subsidized loans from 6.8 percent to 3.4 percent.But the bill - expected to be another political victory for the Democrats' 100-hour legislative agenda - is limited in scope.It… more