"An Irrevocable Mistake" on Financial Aid

I think I'm still shocked by just how bold the Gov's budget is. Between an extra 10 billion for schools, a statewide healthcare program, and the GRT - I'm really surprised that Blagojevich came out of his Rezco indictment bomb shelter to drop out something so radical.

Belleville News Democrat has a great overview of the proposed business tax, a nifty blog I just discovered called Ora et Labora has a Economics 101 look at the GRT as well.

You don't need to be Larry Kudlow to figure out what's going on here: It's medium sized businesses that will be hurt the most and it's the middle class folks who patronize those businesses that will be paying for it.

Whilst I've spent the last few days chewing on that, I sniffed sniffed this off the Tribune:

State officials are preparing quietly to sell the majority of the state's $3.4 billion in student loans to lending companies in a controversial deal involving longtime friends and contributors to Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

Legislators blocked a proposal in the 2005 budget to sell the loans for a one-time windfall, a move critics feared could gut services to college students and their families and leave them at the mercy of private lenders.

It's not just the fact that FA is going more private that bugs me. It's the fact that it's going private at the hands of a well known Blago crony.