Two Government Takeovers for One Huge Price?

Thursday, March 18, 2010, 4:30
Iowa, National, News Center, Top Story
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harkincolor If President Obama and the Democrat’s push for a government takeover of the nation’s healthcare system isn’t enough, they are also trying to include a government takeover of the student loan industry within the healthcare bill. Thus far, Democrats lack the necessary votes to pass the bill, but earlier this week they dusted off an arcane procedure that would allow the bill to pass the house without an actual vote by the people’s elected representatives.

The process is called the “Slaughter Strategy,” named for the Democrat who chairs the rules committee, would make it possible for the House to avoid voting on the reconciliation package by instead voting on the adoption of the rule of reconciliation. Basically, it means that the bill will head straight to the White House for approval, skipping the conference process that would be necessary to iron out any difference between the House and Senate versions of the bill.

The Obama White House has put an incredible amount of pressure on Democratic lawmakers to pass the healthcare reform package. Knowing how unpopular the proposal is with the American public, many Democrats are reluctant to vote for the bill knowing that it could spell trouble for their re-election efforts this fall.

While one would think that the public outrage might cause Democrats to slow down or try and improve the bill, instead it’s actually has persuaded Democrats like Iowa Senator Tom Harkin to attach another huge government entitlement to the bill. When President Obama campaigned in 2008, he advocated for the government takeover of the student loan industry. Now Sen. Harkin is working to lump that added provision in with the healthcare bill. In essence, this is two government takeovers for the expensive price of one huge bill.

By eliminating private sector student loans, the Obama-Harkin plan will kill the competition that helps students get the best deal on student loans, creating a one size fits all government student loan bank with the same rates for all kids and families. While government run healthcare will ultimately lead to the rationing of healthcare in America, nationalizing the student loan programs will also ration who receives assistance and access to higher education in America.

It’s estimated that up to 35,000 private sector jobs will be cut if the student loan takeover passes. Some reasonable Democrats oppose the plan, but the student loan takeover will be written in backrooms by three of the most liberal Democrats and put to a vote without the House, the Senate, or the American public being able to see what is happening due to the use of the reconciliation process to pass a bill that has not been seen by either legislative body.

Just like the healthcare debacle, this proposal is also full of pork. First there is a non-competitive carve out for certain companies in certain states. This sounds exactly like what we saw in the senate healthcare bill. This time, however, it’s not the “Cornhusker Kickback,” instead, it will be the Hawkeye Hustle since the student loan takeover bill would exempt certain state agencies in Iowa and California. Senators Tom Harkin and George Miller both secured carve-outs for their states.

Some believe that including the student loan takeover in the reconciliation process would act as a poison pill that could make it more difficult for the healthcare bill to pass. Yet, Democrats have convinced themselves that, while these huge transformational bills are not popular now, they will be once they are implemented. Another reason for concern is that, since the Democrats already realize that they are about to make an unpopular vote, they might as pass another one of Obama’s unpopular campaign pledges in the process.

With government spending at an all time high and the economy still in the dumps, Democrats are on the cusp of passing two new entitlement programs when we can’t afford the ones we already have. The Wall Street Journal estimates that taxpayers will be asked to loan students roughly $100 billion a year if the bill is signed into law.

Private sector jobs are what America needs to be able to change its current course. Unfortunately, the only thing that the Democrats are interested in is more big government takeovers that will eventually lead to higher taxes which will stymie job growth.

Sadly, Americans are not surprised. It’s just another day, another industry takeover. Bank and auto company bailouts, stimulus packages that went to prop up state spending, and government-mandated healthcare reform. It’s not hard to believe that the next battle involves the Obama Administration’s desire to create a government-run single-payer student loan system.

These government takeovers not only cost taxpayers billions of dollars, they also cost us our liberties.

Tags: Barack Obama, Democratic, democrats, Healthcare Bill, Iowa, Senate, Student Loans, Tom Harkin, United States, United States Senate, White House

About the Author

Craig Robinson has written 700 stories on this site.

Craig Robinson serves as the founder and Editor-in-Chief of TheIowaRepublican.com. Prior to founding Iowa's largest conservative news site, Robinson served as the Political Director of the Republican Party of Iowa during the 2008 Iowa Caucuses. In that capacity, Robinson planned and organized the largest political event in 2007, the Iowa Straw Poll, in Ames, Iowa. Robinson also organized the 2008 Republican caucuses in Iowa, and was later dispatched to Nevada to help with the caucuses there. Robinson cut his teeth in Iowa politics during the 2000 caucus campaign of businessman Steve Forbes and has been involved with most major campaigns in the state since then. His extensive political background and rolodex give him a unique perspective from which to monitor the political pulse of Iowa.

11 Comments on “Two Government Takeovers for One Huge Price?”

Timmy wrote on 18 March, 2010, 7:53
Anyone want to start a “caption this picture” contest?
Deace voted for Obama wrote on 18 March, 2010, 7:58
Harkin is looking for some of that missing $40,000,000 he got for Skills Iowa. We do know 1 million ended up in Dimocrat coffers, including $25,000 for Culver and he got $13,500.
Silence Dogood wrote on 18 March, 2010, 8:54
craig, using fox news talking points for your headlines??? this is not a government takeover. in fact, the cbo will be giving its final numbers, here they are. I would think you all would be for a bill that gets healthcare to 32 million more people being the alleged “pro-life” party. Or do you not see the connection between life and healthcare??? It comes with an added bonus, reducing the deficit. Oh who could be against this but the health insurance industry and their bought and paid for republican puppets in congress.

Silence

The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office estimates that the Democrats’ revised health care bill will cost $940 billion over the next 10 years, two House Democratic sources told CNN Thursday.

The bill cuts the deficit by $130 billion during that period of time, according to the sources, and would reduce the deficit by another $1.2 trillion in the following decade.

The measure extends health insurance coverage to 32 million Americans, helping to guarantee that 95 percent of Americans will be covered, the sources said. It also reduces Medicare expenditures by 1.4 percent annually while extending Medicare’s solvency by at least 9 years, they added.

Rep. Henry Waxman, D-California, told CNN that the CBO estimates are “better than expected.”

Waxman said that many of the remaining undecided House Democrats have been concerned about the bill’s impact on future federal deficits.

The CBO estimates “will go a long way to get them to feel comfortable with the legislation,” he predicted.

GOP leaders said the new CBO estimates had not changed their opinion of the bill, which they vehemently oppose.

The Democrats are “still going to spend a trillion dollars to impose government health care on the American people,” said House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio.

“It’s not too late for the American people to continue to speak up,” he said. “They need to yell a little louder and we can stop this.”

The health care bill passed by the Senate in December would cost $875 billion over the next decade while reducing federal deficits by $118 billion, according to the CBO.

Democrats have been making a series of changes to the Senate bill in recent weeks in part to make the measure more acceptable to House liberals.
Jonny Boy wrote on 18 March, 2010, 9:51
Gosh, I hate to resort to name calling, but anyone who believes that this healthcare bill will reduce deficits is a fool.
CBO scores things, not based upon ALL the facts, but based upon the facts they are GIVEN. In this case they are given a bill with 10 years of taxes and 6 years of services. That is a winning formula for deficit reduction and solvency for 10 years, but for the 200 years to follow it is a formula for bankrupting America.
As for student loans…the bill was never even given a hearing in Senator Harkin’s Committee. Just like Democrats have been doing for all major pieces of legislation, this bill was written by one or two liberal lawmakers and sent over to CBO. The other 98 members of the Senate haven’t even seen a draft of this bill. And they are passing it using reconciliation because so many democrats oppose the idea of nationalizing student loans.
First the banks, then the auto industry, now they want healthcare and student loans, they will stop at nothing to turn this country into the next Cuba!
DrPhillips wrote on 18 March, 2010, 12:41
THE PRESIDENTIAL OATH ONCE TAKEN MUST BE KEPT

Part II

I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. This oath once taken by a President represents a solemn and unreserved commitment to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States of America. The stress, challenges and pressures that confront the president’s office on a daily basis require his absolute and unreserved commitment to enforce this oath.

Today the administration is working overtime to pass a bill that the majority of the American people do not want. The Democrat party presently controls both houses of Congress and the White House. Complicating the healthcare reform bill’s consideration is a President who has stated he is not concerned with procedure, yet that is what the Constitution is about. The desire of the Speaker of the House along with the Majority leader in the Senate seems to be to pass this healthcare bill at most any cost. This strategy has resulted in closed room deals, payoffs and apparent subterfuge. Now the nation is being told that the final bill will be deemed to have been approved without the constitutional procedure for voting having been applied.
The Presidential oath binds the Chief Executive of the United States to the best of his ability to the preservation, protection and defense of the Constitution. He is not tasked with the preservation, protection and defense of any healthcare bill. If in the course of making a strong effort to follow the oath a bill is passed by constitutionally prescribed means with mandated voting procedure followed, that’s another matter. The Constitution outlines the process for rejecting or voting bill into law.
The Constitution provides procedures for many things, including a declaration of war, representation by elected representatives and if necessary the impeachment of a sitting President. For any President to ignore Constitutional law and legal procedure for approvals of bills without votes from elected representatives of the people is a violation of the Constitution and the Presidential oath. The results of deliberately obviating the rules of this great document will result in, deterioration of the writ’s preservation, protection and defense.

At this critical moment in the nation’s history when the Constitution and its voting procedure is under attack the document must be defended by the oath taker the President of the United States. To subvert the Constitution by not preserving, protecting and defending the document’s provisions would make any President subject to impeachment for violation of his oath. Should the elimination of constitutional voting procedures be supported by the President, our Constitutional laws will neither be protected or preserved.

If this healthcare reform bill is enacted through failing to follow constitutional procedure on the part of the President, his violation of the above oath, in my opinion, makes him eligible for impeachment.

Dr. Alan Phillips
March 18, 2010.
Matt Green wrote on 18 March, 2010, 13:20
Timmy – “Hope there ain’t no anthrax in here…”
Timmy wrote on 18 March, 2010, 15:10
Matt, unlike all the ones I came up with, that at least is printable!
Silence Dogood wrote on 18 March, 2010, 16:57
“doctor” I hoped you called on dubya to be impeached when he signed bills passed in similar fashion, namely his precious tax cuts for the wealthy, and how about when he engaged in two wars without any declaration from congress. You should really try studying a bit of history before you shoot yourself in the foot with your posts.

and to jonny, gosh, your republican friends really love the CBO when it supports them, but when it doesn’t, they just don’t have the right facts. please, stop the hypocracy, and start listening to something besides fox news. Yes, it does make sense that stemming health care costs will reduce the deficit as we pay huge amouts in medicare and state health aid. You have to be really silly not to figure that one out. You know, actually, if you really want to reduce the deficit, save money, and insure almost everyone, go to a single payer system for all. The savings estimates jump to 360 billion from the 130 billion over the next 10 years, but god forbid that. the insurance industry would lose money at the expense of saving lives though universal coverage and we all know the “pro life” republican party is against these things

Silence
desmoinesdem wrote on 18 March, 2010, 19:54
Republicans talk a good game about saving taxpayer money, but then they whine about a bill that would save $87 billion on student loans.

Just another GOP effort to convert the public’s money to private profits.