Perhaps this is why I'm paying nine percent interest on my student loans

Up until this point in my college career, I've been able to pay for school using only the $3,500 in student loans a year I've received from the government. However, this year, after switching schools, that $3,500 was not going to be NEAR enough. I took out a $20,000 loan through Sallie Mae which will pay for the remainder year and a half of undergrad I have left, after which I will have two degrees. My credit score currently sits at 711, and for someone my age (I'm 21) that's pretty damn good. So, in theory, one would think I could qualify for, ya know, a somewhat REASONABLE interest rate on the loan. That however, isn't the case. I got pre-approved for the loan with an interest rate of a whopping 9.5%, and up until now, had no clue as to why, but, I'd be willing to bet this may have something to do with it.

Staff at student loan company Sallie Mae planned to meet with Bush administration officials to discuss the 2008 federal budget two months before its public release triggered a drop in the company's share price, according to a company document released by congressional investigators on Thursday.

As part of a probe into an $18-million sale of stock by Sallie Mae's chairman ahead of the budget proposal's release in February, House of Representatives Education Committee Chairman George Miller (news, bio, voting record) said he wants more information about the stock sale and the government relations strategy of the company formally known as SLM Corp.

With federal and state investigators probing misconduct across the $85-billion student loan industry, Miller sent a letter to Sallie Mae Chairman Albert Lord seeking certain company records within 10 days.

The California Democrat also released an internal company document entitled "Federal Government Relations Strategy Discussion." He said the document raises questions about Lord's early February sale of 400,000 shares of stock in the company.

The sale shortly preceded a sharp drop in Sallie Mae's share price after Wall Street was surprised on February 5 by a Bush administration fiscal 2008 budget proposal that included slashing subsidies paid to lenders such as Sallie Mae.

Thanks a lot George Bush, and a big FUCK YOU to you and anyone else on Capitol Hill who may have had something to do with this. Hopefully when I'm taking out another loan 18 months down the road to pay for grad school, the Democrats will have grown a backbone and ya know, actually follow through on one of their major campaign promises which was to fix all this student loan BS.