The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works — whether it helps families find jobs at a decent wage, care they can afford, a retirement that is dignified."
– President Barack Obama, Inauguration, 1/20/09
I think that the answer, in this case, is no, it isn’t working – at least, one hopes this is not a harbinger of worse things to come.
One of the things that many still do not know is that Obama nationalized the higher education financing industry when Obamacare was made the law of the land. Why? I believe mere accounting trickery – it was doubtful that, on its own merits, the Education Takeover would have happened even though the Obama Administration was pitching billions of dollars of savings. So, Pelosi and Reid attached to Obamacare – and got a twofer for nationalization of two industries at once as it "seemingly" made the numbers for Obamacare look better when the two programs were combined – in essence, it was used to "game", in part, the CBO scoring.
So, what happened today, the first day that Government runs this program? Well, for starters, it would help if the Government owned website that is now THE portal for this program would, you know, be operational? Helpful, you think?
Studentloans.gov, the web site that handles government direct lending to students, was broken most of the day Tuesday, when President Obama signed a massive expansion of the federal role in student loans into law.
Wait – it gets better! From the Washington Times:
The government’s Web site for handling student loans was broken most of Tuesday — the very day President Obama signed a law putting the government in charge of all subsidized student lending.
Visitors to the site www.studentloans.gov early Tuesday afternoon saw an error message, while users Monday saw either an error message or, in the evening, were simply unable to connect to the site at all.
…"This is a case study in what happens when the federal government takes over a function of the private sector. On its first day of operation, the federal student loan program has collapsed into a black hole from which no information can escape," said John Hart, a spokesman for Sen. Tom Coburn, Oklahoma Republican.
Multiple messages for comment were left with the Education Department on Monday and Tuesday. On Tuesday afternoon, a spokesman e-mailed that officials were "checking" on the matter.
Yessiree Bob! They are "checking" on it – certainly gives me a warm, cuddly feeling – you? "Mission critical" mean anything?
Well, given that Obama a while ago said that jobs were to be (stealing from the only American car company that Obama DIDN’T nationalize here) Job 1, we also got this news: Sallie Mae (a quasi-private company /government sponsored enterprise) that does student loans, is laying off 2,500 of their workers (out of a workforce of 8,600) due to this nationalization by Obama
Gives new meaning to Obama’s phrase "whether it helps families find jobs at a decent wage" doesn’t it? More Obama funemployment for these families!
Oh yeah, almost forgot. Those "billions of savings" from nationalizing this industry? CBO has some more bad news:
The student loan overhaul legislation signed into law by President Barack Obama on Tuesday could add $52 billion to the deficit between 2010 and 2020 when the cost of the market risks and administrative expenses of the loans are taken into consideration, the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) reported.
Can we start reviewing the "too big" part of his statement, please?
