How Evil Can You Get?

This evil, apparently.

The White House said it would veto a college-cost-reduction bill that made its way to the House floor Wednesday, claiming that it fails to help the neediest college students and creates programs with long-term costs for taxpayers.

The College Cost Reduction Act of 2007 would boost college financial aid by about $18 billion over the next five years and cut federal subsidies to lenders in the college-loan industry. The proposed legislation would also invest in minority institutions, control repayment rates and create loan-forgiveness programs, among other actions.

Under the act, the maximum value of the Pell Grant scholarship would increase by $500 over the next five years. The act would also cut interest rates on need-based student loans to 3.4% from 6.8%.

"This costly proposal only benefits students once they leave school, when they can already take advantage of flexible repayment options available under current law and reduce the effective interest rate they pay through the existing tax deduction for student loan interest," according to a statement from the White House.

Costly proposal (n.) - a proposal that does not bring large returns to administration cronies (White House abridged dictionary, 2007 ed.)

Neediest college students (n.) - college students who are children of administration cronies (White House abridged dictionary, 2007 ed.)

This is more of the same fanatical and hysteric blubbering about how any government spending - on programs that help people, instead of letting them flounder, which is commonly referred to as "pulling yourself up by your own bootstraps" or "building character" - is inherently wrong. When your governing party's ideology explicitly states that government is bad, and cannot and should not do anything, of course you are going to get horrible governance. It is that simple.

(Emphasis mine)

Update: I have to point out what a stellar piece of reporting this is. Ruth Mantell, the reporter, managed to write an entire article on a bill written by Democrats without quoting a Democrat or providing any color for the Democratic position on the bill. All she did was vomit back the White House's talking points. Did it not occur to her to contact any Democrats or get a rebuttal as to why the White House might be full of crap? The article is nothing more than a convenient whine-fest for the White House. Mantell either only spoke to her sources in the White House or just pulled whatever their press release was and did some stenography. Either possibility is unacceptable and reflective of lazy and shoddy reporting.