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Despite Slamming Student Loan Reform As ‘Washington Takeover,’ House GOP Leaves It Out Of Repeal Bill

By Pat Garofalo on Jan 4, 2011 at 1:01 pm

moneygradWhen President Obama signed the Affordable Care Act into law, he not only completed the long, arduous task of health care reform, but also made official significant changes to the federal student loan system. The Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act (SAFRA), which was included in the Affordable Care Act, cut billions of dollars in senseless subsidies that student loan companies were receiving to originate federal student loans, and plowed the money into deficit reduction and an expansion of the Pell Grant program.

At the time, student loan reform earned the scorn of Republicans, who falsely characterized is as a “Washington takeover” of student lending, in which the federal government was “seizing control of industries.” Several Republicans made student loan reform into a campaign issue, with Sen.-elect Ron Kirk (R-IL) calling it “a complete government takeover of all student loans.”

But interestingly enough, while House Republicans are undertaking much-ballyhooed effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act (and have scheduled a repeal vote for January 12), their repeal bill specifically exempts student loan reform. Here’s the legislative text of their repeal bill:

Effective as of the enactment of the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 (Public Law 111–152), title I and subtitle B of title II of such Act are repealed, and the provisions of law amended or repealed by such title or subtitle, respectively, are restored or revived as if such title and subtitle had not been en acted.

Title II, Subtitle A of the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act — which is the section dealing with student loans — remains untouched.

It’s not surprising that the GOP would want to conveniently forget their opposition to SAFRA and leave the measure intact. After all, repealing it would place bankers back in between students and their loans, wasting taxpayer money. Repealing the Affordable Care Act will already increase the deficit, without piling the savings from SAFRA on top. According to an analysis by CAP Senior Fellow Ulrich Boser, the boost in incomes due to student loan reform will top $100 billion, as more students have access to higher education and thus higher lifetime earnings.

So it seems that all the wailing and gnashing of teeth in which the GOP engaged during the student loan reform debate was nothing more than theater, designed to score as many points off of calling various Democratic policies “takeovers” as they could. We should remember this when some policy idea inevitably receives that particular label from Republicans in the 112th Congress.

Rep. Kingston Threatens To Defund Food Safety Law That Will Protect The Public And Save Taxpayers Money

By Pat Garofalo on Jan 4, 2011 at 11:00 am

Rep. Jack Kingston (R-GA)

Today, President Obama is expected to sign into law a food safety bill that significantly upgrades the ability of the Food and Drug Administration to prevent and respond to outbreaks of foodborne illness. The bill passed the Senate by unanimous consent last month, and the House passed it on a 215-144 vote, with ten Republicans joining all but eight Democrats in affirming the measure.

Despite this bipartisan support, the incoming Republican leadership in the House is threatening to defund the bill, the implementation of which requires $1.4 billion over the next five years, mostly to hire new food inspectors. The bill is officially deficit neutral, according to the Congressional Budget Office, as it raises fees to offset its cost, but Congressional appropriators still need to okay the FDA to spend the money.

And Rep. Jack Kingston (R-GA), the incoming chairman of the appropriations subcommittee charged with the FDA budget, seems disinclined to do so:

“There’s a high possibility of trimming this whole package back,” Kingston said yesterday in a telephone interview. “While it’s a great re-election tool to terrify people into thinking that the food they’re eating is unsafe and unsanitary, and if not for the wonderful nanny-state politicians we’d be getting sick after every meal, the system we have is doing a darn good job.”

Even without some of the high-profile food recalls of last year — including of salmonella-contaminated eggs and E. coli-contaminated spinach — there is a significant public health justification for upgrading the nation’s food safety system.

At the moment, one out of six Americans suffers from a foodborne illness every year, with 128,000 of those resulting in hospitalization. Ultimately, 3,000 people die from foodborne illness each year, according to the Department of Health and Human Services. The law gives the FDA the ability to force recalls, which it currently is barred from doing, and do more to inspect food coming into the country.

Aside from the public health benefits, the bill will actually save taxpayers money in the long-run (while costing them nothing in the short-run). “The costs of failing to overhaul the food-safety system would ultimately exceed the legislation’s implementation costs,” said Erik Olson, director of food programs at the Pew Health Group. According to Georgetown University’s Produce Safety Project, foodborne illness costs the U.S. $152 billion annually.

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