It's hard to take Citi's national debt argument against Obama's college aid plan seriously given: (1) the billions in TARP money they've taken, and (2) that the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office says Obama's student loan plan will save $94 billion over the next 10 years -- enough to pay for the biggest financial aid increase in American history. But why listen to CBO, they don't have anything to gain financially from the current student loan system?

To be fair, Citi does believe in the value of choice among lenders as their letter to borrowers states. That's why Citi bought Student Loan Xpress, chosen by hundreds of colleges for its superior kickbacks, bribes, and cut-rate insider stock given to schools that direct unsuspecting student borrowers their way. See New York Times front page stories, day after day, in April 2007.

Did Andrew Cuomo's nationwide "pay for play" scandal teach us nothing? Democrats in Congress better man up and pass Obama's College Aid plan!

This is going on while over at the Finance Committee, Max Baucus (with help from Evan Bayh and Ben Nelson, etc.,) are getting their "campaign donations/bucks" from Big Pharma, HMO's and Insurance Executives, etc., making sure to exclude any sort of single-payer health care for consideration, in any "new health care package"...(what the hell, most of us have been paying into medi-care for years..why do we have to wait until we are old and sick to use it?) ...when are the American people going to catch on...? Obama can't do it on his own.....we have to stand up and scream bloody murder..too! Get the lobbyists, the corporations special interest groups with their checkbooks and their (our) bail-out money OUT of OUR Congress....!! And just why the Hell, isn't President Obama saying or doing anything about all this ....?

How is Citi supposed to make money folks if they can't skim hefty profits from government guaranteed loans?

They can't float CDO's, CDS's, SCDS's, DoubleSwaps, TripleSwaps or Texas Mortgage Hold 'Em Swaps to suckers so easy anymore and Congress is trying to stop them from charging usurious rates on credit cards-!

Getting 0% money from the Fed and loaning it out at 27% or so is still a tough way to make a lot of maoney in today's market, and the 'best of the best' have very high expectations in the compensation realm.

Besides agreeing with virtually every comment above, I have gone so far as to sign the petition myself with the following comment:

I support this petition in hopes of having a frank debate on this. It frightens me to see 8000+ people supporting the banks to not lose their FEDERALLY GUARENTEED Student Load gravy train. Without that guarentee, what are the chances banks would lend to students with little credit history? ZERO. And their glorious services are accompanied by credit card offers in the hundreds - certainly not a way to promote "responsible lending". Is this really where my bailout money is going?

I looked at some of the comments offered by student load officers, parents, and borrowers, and if this is the state of "college education" (and I myself have far too much education to be good for me - just shy of a Ph.D. in Mathematics), it is no wonder the country is exactly where we are today. People are so willing to accept a snazzy website and "if you pay on time for 24 months we will take" - wait for it, hold your breath - "a 1/4 point off of your loan. We won't drop the corresponding payment, of course, 'cause them we can float the difference as pure profit until the end of your 200 year loan".

Bailed out companies use bailout funds to lobby against taxpayer savings. These guys have no shame.

They continue to "Not Get It", nor will they, as long as the business model of public risk liability with privatization of profits is the norm. They do it because they can, and until the penalties start to reach the magnatude of the fiscal reward it will continue, ad nauseum.
Curious just what is the % of stock Gov. now owns and does it still have stockholders voting rights or did that get bargained away in the process? Time for a stockholders meeting and the figurative taking of heads, and an excising of this strain of corporate DNA. We only need to "Nationalize" the first one for the message to get out that we're serious. Enough....