Gorelick Not Lobbying for Lender Giveaway, Despite Our Earlier Post Indicating Otherwise

I posted last week off of a New York Times piece by Eric Lichtblau that proved to be misleading. Shame on both of us for not doing more homework. Jamie Gorelick—a former deputy attorney general—is not lobbying for that awful giveaway to lenders as reported. The administration's "direct lending" bill, which would stop the crazy current practice of letting lenders profit from student loans backed by the government, would save the taxpayers $87 billion (most of which would go for Pell Grants and much-needed expansion of the loan program). The compromise, which Gorelick is lobbying for, would save the government $83 billion but let some lenders stay in business servicing the loans. I favor the Obama version, but I don't think the compromise is evil, as the status quo no-risk windfall for Sallie Mae is. So I owe Gorelick an apology for making it seem as if she had taken the business of the devil.