When no one was paying attention, the United States Senate did it again. On Dec. 21, the Senate voted 51 to 50 to cut $12.7 billion out of the student loan programs, with Vice President Dick Cheney casting the tie-breaking vote.

Apparently the Senate is not concerned about college students and their families. They are, in effect, forcing the latter to pay more in higher interest rates. This lack of identification by Congress with middle and lower class Americans is also evident in the maximum Pell Grant amount, which has been kept frozen for several years. In the meantime, college tuition has risen on average between 5 and 10 percent every year – outrunning even inflation.

In defense of the Senate, it can be argued that the majority party is simply trying to cut the monstrously excessive federal budget of the past several years and return to fiscal responsibility. I beg to disagree.

The issue for Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., is a matter of trade-off: cut student financial aid in order to subsidize the upcoming tax cut for “some of the wealthiest Americans.” I guess they really need it … and the rich will help the economy, you know, by spending the tax cut and making the sweet magic of trickle-down economics work its way down to benefit students.

I love fairy tales. Bill O’Reilly and Sean Hannity are my favorite storytellers. But I don’t buy this trickle-down line. Life teaches one otherwise. The only thing that rolls down hill is stercus – also known as feces- not student financial aid.

Fortunately, the House still needs to vote on a final version of the proposed budget sometime this month. And in a democratic system such as ours, input structures exist, which allow for the above problem to be remedied.

For example, studentaidaction.com is one such input structure. It has declared Jan. 24 and Jan. 31 National Days of Action to Stop the Raid on Student Aid. Furthermore, college students and parents can contact their respective senators and representatives by calling the Congress switchboard at 202-224-3121.

Make the phone call today and get your tax money back.

Vitaliy Voznyak is a political science senior from Mandeville, La.