Honestly, good question. The answer:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filibus..._States_Senate
2012 is a defense year for the D's in the Senate. They had a lot of pickups in 2006. They will probably lose a seat or two. I honestly think Obama wins re-election. Furthermore, mid-term elections aren't good for sitting presidents so 2014 will be another "Republican Wave." They will have House/Senate for sure by then. I would say 2016 will be your next good chance for these free pony types of laws.
I would also like to point out, that our government is not proactive, it is very reactionary. Honestly the default rate on student loans is only ~10%. Not much different then credit cards.
Source:
The U.S. Department of Education today released the official FY 2009 national student loan cohort default rate, which has risen to 8.8 percent, up from 7.0 percent in FY 2008. The cohort default rates increased for all sectors:
from 6.0 percent to 7.2 percent for public institutions, from 4.0 percent to 4.6 percent for private institutions, and from 11.6 percent to 15 percent at for-profit schools.
Most of the default is due to private, for-profit schools anyway. It would take massive defaults approaching ~50% for the government to do anything.
In addition, the economy does suck right now, truthfully when it improves, the default rate will go down further. The only hope for these free ponies is truthfully another Great Recession that forces a socialistic type European state. So it will pretty much take the failure of market capitalism for the United States to do these types of things.
Believe me when I say, you will pay EVERY CENT OF OF EVERY DOLLAR.
PS: It's not like I don't want a free pony, or like $102,000.00 of them. I am just realistic of our form of government. Also, at least we will get cheaper houses for the next decade. Look at the brightside
