On the heels of Gov. Perdue’s veto of their attempt to nullify health care reform for North Carolina — and the refusal of conservative Democrats to join a veto override effort — the GOP-run legislature is still introducing one harmful bill after another. The latest bad idea from Mecklenburg County’s pride and joy, Speaker Thom Tillis, and his friends in the House is a bill which would allow local community colleges to refuse to offer low-interest federal loans. That bill passed the House yesterday. Republican leaders say the bill is intended to provide more local control, while Democrats argued that — duh — it would primarily hurt low-income students who are trying to improve their lot in life, and could even force some of them to turn to loan sharks. The bill now goes to the Senate.
NC PolicyWatch reports that Senate President Phil Berger, in classic delusional style, said that allowing community colleges to refuse to make low-interest federal loans available to students who need them is, somehow, a big plus for “individual freedom.” You see, explained Berger, who probably last spoke to a low-income person somewhere around 1982, a student who could not get a needed low-interest loan at his or her local community college — get this — could simply pack up and move to another county where the community college offers them.
Here is a video of three Democratic Representatives speaking against the bill in the House:
This article appears in Mar 8-14, 2011.
I can’t remember the last good idea a conservative had.
Good to see they’re continuing to do everything in their power to keep America stupid.
Then again, without stupid people I suppose the Republican party wouldn’t have much of a voting base.
You are to be pitted . Don’t complain about Rush Limbaugh; you have him beaten in the “disgusting category.”
Wow, you’re in for it now, Wes. You are to be “pitted”!!! Just like an olive — ouch! Man, the conservitards are getting more violent all the time.
Thanks for proving my point there bob.
“I don’t want everybody to vote. Elections are not won by a majority of the people. They never have been from the beginning of our country and they are not now. As a matter of fact, our leverage in the elections quite candidly goes up as the voting populace goes down.”– Heritage Foundation co-founder Paul Weyrich