With Democratic Congressional leaders and the White House struggling on Wednesday to finalize the details of major health care legislation, House Democrats were desperately trying to prevent another of President Obama’s top legislative priorities – an ambitious overhaul of student loan programs – from becoming a casualty of the health care battle. But Democrats in the Senate, where the private student lending industry has strong allies, predicted on Wednesday night that the education bill would not be part of an expedited budget measure containing the final revisions to the health care legislation.

Roy Sekoff appeared on “The Ed Show” Wednesday to weigh in on yesterday’s bizarre media blitz by former Democratic congressman Eric Massa. When asked by Ed Schultz if Democrats should respond to Massa’s claims that the health care reform bill will “destroy this country,” Sekoff argued that the party should let it go.

WASHINGTON — Legislation blending help for the jobless with popular tax breaks for businesses and individuals is slated to pass the Senate Wednesday over protests from conservatives who say it adds too much to the $12.5 trillion national debt. But compassion for the jobless and the political power of an annual package of tax breaks is likely to produce a bipartisan vote to pass the measure, even though it would add more than $130 billion to the budget deficit over the next year and a half.

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama said Tuesday he’ll bring in high-tech bounty hunters to help root out health care fraud, grabbing a populist idea with bipartisan backing in his final push to overhaul the system. The White House announcement came as Obama prepared to travel to Missouri on Wednesday, taking his closing argument to the nation’s heartland

DENVER– Perhaps no issue will underline the divide separating state Democrats and Republicans this legislative session as well as the war to rein in the payday loan industry. That war saw its first real skirmishes Monday at the capitol when roughly 150 payday-loan business owners and employees rallied outside the building in advance of a hearing on a bill that seeks to cap payday interest rates and limit the infamous cycle of personal payday-loan debt the industry depends upon to generate millions in profits. More on Interest Rates

WASHINGTON — Legislation extending unemployment insurance for the long-term jobless faces a key test vote in the Senate, its momentum helped by about 60 popular tax breaks for individuals and businesses that expired at the end of last year.

One of the conservative goals former President George W.