ARMAND BIROONAK Don't Let Them Kill Student Loan Reform Something so simple, so easy: end billion dollar bank subsidies to the private lending industry and return much of the savings back into the hand of students, with the Department of Education providing loans to students directly. Yet reform may be a no-go, if six Senate Democrats have their way. ROBERT BOROSAGE The Last Obscenity: Will the Bank Lobby Succeed in Screwing Poor Kids? If, as President Obama stated, it is a "no-brainer" to cut the $90 billion in subsides that go to banks to make risk-free student loans and use the money saved to increase Pell grants and tuition tax credits for working families, so more poor kids can afford college, why can't we get this done? RICHARD ESKOW Demand an "Up or Down Vote" On Real Financial Reform After more than a year of closed-door negotiations, the President and other Democrats have finally appropriated a Republican phrase by calling for "an up or down vote" on the resulting health reform legislation. Great idea — so great, in fact, that we should do even better on financial reform. This time, let's have an up-or-down vote on each of the vital policy planks that constitute meaningful reform. Instead of having politicians do their horsetrading in private and leaving the public vote until the end, let's have a public show of hands on the vital economic issues of our time.. ROBERT BOROSAGE Sen. Brown to Geithner: Make the Fed Accountable Sen. Sherrod Brown, head of the subcommittee in charge of overseeing the Federal Reserve, has written President Obama urging him to use the THREE vacancies on the Federal Reserve Board of Governors to make the Fed more accountable. These appointments are like Supreme Court appointments; they can shape the Federal Reserve — whose extraordinary powers were exposed during the financial collapse — for years to come. NATASHA CHART Getting Direct Foreign Investment In US Workers Remember the Texas wind project that got this whole discussion started about where the stimulus money was going? The Chinese company involved in the project is now scoping out sites in Nevada for a 1,000 person manufacturing and assembly plant, like they said they would. DAVE JOHNSON Why Won't Obama Label China A Currency Manipulator? There is a great deal of pressure on the Obama administration to declare China as a currency manipulator, and with very good reason: they are manipulating their currency. This manipulation gives goods made in China a huge price advantage over goods made in other countries, and is a large part of the reason so many of our companies move manufacturing and jobs from here to there. This is, of course, not "free trade" it is a stacked deck. MIKE ELK Activist Win Against Goldman-Sachs' Local Government Ripoff A few weeks ago, I wrote about how big banks refused to renegotiate deceptive, Greek-style interest rate swaps with local governments throughout the U.S. Such swaps cost local governments approximately $29 billion a year when local governments are laying off badly needed public employees and cut services. After a major victory in Los Angeles, a mass social movement has been launched all over the country to get municipalities out of these agreements, using the power of moving local government's money. Now the fight moves on to Oakland and other cities throughout the country. more from our bloggers >>

Speaker Pelosi today begins "walking her members through" the final health care bill language, reports Politico: "'We’re going to get started,' Pelosi said as she left the Capitol Wednesday night ... The speaker and her leadership team have their work cut out for them as they approach an Easter deadline to wrap up a year’s worth of work on health care reform in the next two-and-a-half weeks."

WH-Congress near final health care agreement. AP: "A closed-door meeting in House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office Wednesday evening moved congressional leaders and administration officials close to agreement on such issues as additional subsidies to help lower-income families ... and more aid for states under the Medicaid program ... Democrats still need to see a final cost estimate from the Congressional Budget Office..."

In St. Louis, President emphasizes track record in cutting waste to bolster health care cost-savings argument. Bloomberg quotes: "So much of the money currently in our health-care system is being misspent ... If we can have a smarter health-care system, then yes, we can provide help to middle-class folks who need it and, at the same time, actually reduce the burden on taxpayers.”

LAT on the president's plan to support waste-fighters: "...Obama has proposed expanding a program to reward private bounty hunters who find waste by auditing government payments through what are called 'payment recapture audits.' The White House reported that a pilot program in California, New York and Texas yielded $900 million in Medicare savings between 2005 and 2009."

TNR's Jonathan Cohn points out Congress will get the same insurance as many Americans under the bill: "The provision would require that members of Congress and their staff get insurance through the new insurance exchanges, once they are up and running ... It's giving Congress what everybody else has, instead of giving everybody else what Congress has. Maybe that will sound more credible to the skeptics."

W. Post's Chris Cilllizza reports health care is now a big test of Organizing For America's grassroots muscle: "The House vote looks like it will be decided by a small margin, with a number of Democrats publicly -- and privately -- on the fence about the legislation. OFA, according to its defenders, was built for exactly this sort of situation. But, there are lingering questions in the Democratic operative community about whether or not OFA has been effective in doing much of anything other than (sort of) rallying the base of the party behind Obama's priorities."

HHS Sec. confronts insurance industry. Politico: "...she spent much of her 20-minute speech recounting tales of Americans who have lost their coverage because of skyrocketing insurance prices and reminding the audience that major insurers have poured millions of dollars into ad campaigns opposing reform legislation that has been moving through Congress for more than a year."

Newsweek's Daniel Gross Republicans' claim that health care reform will mean a "government takeover" of one-sixth of the economy is bogus: "... the bills under consideration don't contain a public option and don't provide for a single payer. In fact, they provide subsidies for millions of people to purchase private insurance."

HuffPost reports 41 Senators now backing public option through reconciliation: "Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) became the 41st senator ... [He] was unequivocal. "Yes," ... momentum has come without any organized effort by Senate leadership or from the White House."

Sen. Durbin acknowledges some of those 41 will be asked to vote against public option. Roll Call: "...ome supporters of creating a public insurance option are privately worried that they will be asked to vote against the idea during debate on the bill ... Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) acknowledged Wednesday that liberals may be asked to oppose any amendment, including one creating a public option, to ensure a smooth ride for the bill. 'We have to tell people, "You just have to swallow hard" and say that putting an amendment on this is either going to stop it or slow it down, and we just can’t let it happen,'..."

6 right-leaning Senate Dems push back on also including student loan reform in reconciliation bill. Politico: "Sens. Lincoln, Bayh, Webb, Warner, Ben Nelson and Bill Nelson wrote that the Senate must move forward 'in a thoughtful manner that considers potential alternative legislative proposals.' Including the House-passed lending overhaul in the health reform bill would not give senators much room to tweak it. Sen. Dick Durbin, the Senate's No. 2 Democrat, said yesterday that the lending overhaul would only be included if it helped win votes for health care reform."

Sen. Sanders pushing state-based single-payer strategy. W. Post Ezra Klein: "'Right now,' he explained, 'we have language in the bill that says that states that want to go forward with single payer can do that.' He's talking about the Waiver for State Innovation ... And before some of my conservative readers decide this is a liberal trapdoor in the middle of the bill, the provision could be used to develop a much more conservative approach to universal health care. In fact, it's a legislative expression of the GOP's third plank for health-care reform..."

Steven D, at the Booman Tribune backs Rep. Alan Grayson's new bill to allow Americans to buy into Medicare at cost: " I'd pay for Medicare coverage for myself and my children in a heart beat rather than keep tossing money at corporate bloodsuckers America's private health insurance industry."

Bold Jobs Bill Proposed, As Senate Passes Long-Term Jobless Aid

New House "Local Jobs For America Act" from Rep. George Miller would directly create 1 million jobs. OurFuture.org's Isaiah Poole: "...These include about a quarter million jobs in education, and 750,000 other jobs providing services that range from public safety to child care, in both the public and private sector ... These jobs, they maintain, would not be temporary, make-work positions ... the legislation addresses the fundamental inadequacy of last year's Recovery Act bill in compensating for the spending cuts that state and local governments did..." More details from AFL-CIO's James Parks.

Rep. Miller hopes $100B jobs bill will prod Senate to think big. Roll Call: "Miller said he hopes that when mayors come to Washington, D.C., next week to lobby, they will help convince the Senate of the need to act ... the Senate hasn’t yet put together anything close to the package Miller is proposing, instead choosing to split legislation into a series of proposals that are harder for Republicans to oppose."

Senate passes long-term jobless aid, additional funding to states for Medicaid, on bipartisan vote. Bloomberg: "The vote was 62 to 36. Six Republicans joined Democrats in voting for the bill; the only Democrat to oppose it was Senator Ben Nelson of Nebraska."

"16 Senators From States With Double-Digit Jobless Rates Vote Against Extending Unemployment Benefits" reports Wonk Room.

Some House members concerned about duplicative revenue raisers in Senate bill. The Hill: "House Democrats suggested they may make changes to the Senate bill when they take it up [noting] that the revenue raisers in the Senate bill are already included in the healthcare reform proposal favored by President Barack Obama."

Senate may turn to infrastructure investment soon. The Hill: "Oberstar, the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee chairman, said that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) told him he would soon bring up a bill that included the infrastructure and state fiscal aid measures from the House jobs bill .. before Congress leaves for the Easter break."

President to ramp up effort to boost exports. AP: "An administration official says Obama will issue an executive order Thursday creating an Export Promotion Cabinet of federal agencies whose work affects exports ... Two prominent business leaders will be named to lead the President's Export Council, an advisory committee on international trade. They are the president and CEO of The Boeing Co., Jim McNerney, and the CEO of Xerox Co., Ursula Burns."

NYT highlights complaints of Obama by supporters loose trade agreements: "...supporters of freeing up trade say the administration has been slow to move..."

Roll Call finds House liberals newly impressed with Obama's balanced approach to trade: "Between sending U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk to meet with House Democrats to find common ground on trade policies and then announcing a deal with Canada allowing U.S. businesses to bid on Canadian government procurement and vice versa, Obama has come a long way since angering liberals last year after signaling an interest in advancing leftover trade deals from the Bush administration."

Jared Bernstein, Chief Economist to the Vice President keeps the focus on what the Recovery Act has accomplished: "...there are hundreds of thousands of teachers in classrooms and police on the beat, construction workers fixing roads, weatherizing and rehabbing buildings, engineers building out the smart grid and planning new high-speed rail lines, and much more ... for each one of these jobs, there are many others helping to supply materials and services to these firms and workers. We'll be throwing a lot more stones in the water in coming months, and I'll be sure to keep [you] posted on both the splash and the ripples."

HuffPost's Arthur Delaney highlights expiring stimulus program that could cost 100,00 jobs: "...more than 100,000 people ... will lose their jobs by September unless Congress extends a stimulus bill provision that gives states funding to create jobs programs for low-income parents and young adults ... On Tuesday, Senate Republicans (and four Democrats) defeated a $1.3 billion measure that extends funding until March 2011 for the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families Emergency Fund ... Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said Wednesday that Senate Democrats will revisit the measure soon."

Kansas City decides to shutter 26 schools to help close budget gap reports McClatchy.