Quick Post: Raising Important Questions

I'm going to begin a series of quick posts each week that pose important questions, and I hope that those in power will be open to responding. Here are a few that I have about the consolidation issue and problems I suspect are related to the Department of Education's refusal to help current borrowers:

-Why isn't the Department of Education doing anything about consolidation? There is strong evidence that suggests that it would save borrowers money and it would also save taxpayers money. Here's a great opportunity to help both parties, so why isn't the Dept. of Education moving on it? I am not aware of the scoring, but think it's safe to say that the savings could be enormous.

-We're not sure about the potential savings for borrowers and taxpayers, and that's why I ask this next question: how many old loans are out there, and how much could we be saving? (People in Washington only seem to care about saving money when it comes to their elections, so I'd like an answer to this question).

-Why does the Department of Education appear to be siding with lenders still? Is that because it is an institution that is just as broken and ineffectual as the S.E.C. (i.e., is it yet another case of the fox guarding the hen house, because that's how things seem to look these days in D.C. That at least would explains the callousness of people on the Hill)? That's really to say, is the Department of Education still filled to the brim with people that Bush put in there for the past 8 years? If that's the case, why hasn't the Obama Administration made an effort to clean it up?