A new bill that would revamp student loan programs in the United States passed the House of Representatives. The proposed program, which would affect the largest change on college aid since they came into existence in the 1960s would push private lenders out of the business and put the U.S. government in control.

The new measure would end subsidies for private lenders, increase Pell Grants available for students in financial need, and create grants for community colleges. The proposal includes almost all of President Obama's key points on higher education from the campaign trail. It passed the House 253 – 171, with most representatives sticking to party lines.

The $810 billion bailout plan was just approved by the House of Representatives after a second vote by a margin of 263-171. That's a lot of taxpayer money for a plan that misses the target. And with stocks falling well off the highest levels of the day, I gather that investors are not too surprised that it passed.

To put this in perspective, the Dow now trades 631 points below where it was on the morning of the record 778 point decline on Monday. That's when the House voted thumbs down on the original plan. I guess taxpayers will need to spend a few trillion dollars to get more of those triple digit gains.

Meanwhile, I think that unless the Treasury can solve the thorny problem of setting a price for the mortgage-backed securities (MBS) and collateralized debt obligations (CDOs), then it will fail to solve the real economic problem -- which is a lack of trust in the financial system. I've proposed what I thought would be a better solution.

Maybe we can try that one next week if stocks drop another 700 points. There seems to be no limit to the amount of taxpayer money the government is willing to throw at this financial crisis.

Peter Cohan is President of Peter S. Cohan & Associates. He also teaches management at Babson College and edits The Cohan Letter.

American President George Bush announced his new budget spending plan today, and the package came out to a total of $3.1 trillion.

Today's federal budget proposal marks the first time in America's history that a budget plan has been in excess of $3 trillion. Bush claims that his budget is "good" and "solid" and that the passing of this budget will help keep the troubled American economy growing.

All in all, this budget looks to lift government spending by 6% during the fiscal year 2009, and it will probably come to no one's surprise that defense gets a nice little boost from today's budget. Bush is looking to allocate 8.2% of his spending on security, and the budget is looking to stake a $70 billion "placeholder" for war costs during 2009. The Pentagon should be pleased with its figures, as Bush is looking to allocate $515.4 billion its way... the highest allocation since WWII (and represents a 7.5% jump).