On a lot of levels, things don’t look so good with this student loan legislation. First, Democrats are just now figuring out that they can’t deliver what they promised. They’re hoping that you – the voter – don’t notice that you – the borrower – aren’t going to get what they promised.

Things don’t look so good for you the borrower, because thee Congressional Democrats want to cut about $20 billion in student loan subsidies to FFELP lenders. This isn’t the $20 billion that lines the pockets of dishonest and greedy FFELP lenders. This is the $20 billion that pays for your student loan origination fee waivers, your interest rate cuts, your incentives for on-time payment histories, your competitive interest rate cuts, your borrower education and default avoidance programs and all of the other “amenities” the FFELP lenders provide to borrowers. You won’t be getting those from the FDLP program. Those will be coming out of your pocket.

Don’t think for a minute that this legislation won’t affect you. It will. You, the taxpayer, can’t escape the impact of a Federal program cut of 75 percent or more, especially when the government wants to continue the program without paying for it. You will be expected to pay for your student loan twice – once through direct repayment of the money you borrowed, and again to repay the money the Feds borrowed to lend to you in the first place. How is that fair and equitable? It’s not!

Things don’t look so good for the FFELP lenders who have participated in the program for years. Everything you thought you knew about student loans will change. The rules will be very different than what you thought you were going to have and you won’t always be able to rely on student loans to help you through college.

Things don’t look so good for your parents, who may have planned to borrow funds to get you through college. They’re going to be stuck with the same mess you are. They’ll pay for your loans twice … maybe three times. Once, when they borrow for your education’ a second time as their tax dollars go to work paying off the money the Feds borrowed to lend to them for your benefits, and a third time, if they also borrow against their retirement savings to pay for your education. They may have to delay their retirement plans while at the same time, they’ll risk losing their retirement funds altogether if something unfortunate happens to one of them before they can get your student loans repaid.

As I said, things don’t look so good.