GOP supports government bailouts for failing firms.

[Beet]

There is an industry based on making loans so that certain types of poor, uneducated consumers can spend huge sums of money. The product they are buying is touted as an "investment" but in reality gives very poor returns. As a result, the default rates on these loans are astronomical-- 30, 40, 50, 60 percent or higher. This is a loan industry that would never exist under the free market of course. The loan industry only exists because of government- backed subsidies and guarantees. In the end, the taxpayer is left holding the bag.

Is it Fannie and Freddie? No. But the failures are the same as the failures of Fannie and Freddie, which the GOP has tried to use to blame the financial crisis on 'government'. Yet the GOP is behind this industry 100%. Which industry is it? You can probably guess.

[Beet]

This isn't really about public vs. private, IMO. This is about common sense regulations on real schools vs. taxpayer-funded diploma mills with a 22% graduation rate.

[Beet]

Any non-profit private school that can't meet a 35-40% graduation rate in 6 years, at minimum, should not be eligible for federal student loans, and any public school that can't meet the same standard should have its leadership sacked and policies overhauled from the ground up.

Although, graduation rates shouldn't be the only standard. As the American Enterprise Institute points out, it's easy to pad graduation rates by lowering standards. A better indicator might be loan default rates-- that shows how many students actually see the degree pay off with an income that allows them to recoup their student loans. And that is precisely what is being blocked by these GOP Senators.