Van Hollen: GOP Feeling the Heat, Trying a Head Fake on Student Loans

Want to Pay for their Plan with Important Funds for Women’s Health

Washington, DC – Today Maryland Congressman Chris Van Hollen, Ranking Member of the House Budget Committee, on the Ed Schultz Radio show to discuss the House GOP proposal to pay for the student loan interest rate fix with the Prevention and Public Health Fund from the Affordable Care Act. The transcript is below.

ED SCHULTZ: Congressman Chris Van Hollen here on the Ed Schultz radio show. Great to have you with us, Congressman.

REP. CHRIS VAN HOLLEN: Ed, good to be with you.

SCHULTZ: All right. John Boehner’s complaining this morning about the use of Air Force One for the President to go to Chapel Hill, to Boulder, and to Iowa City to talk about student loans. My response to that was I would like to know how many times Dick Cheney used a plane to go pheasant hunting in South Dakota. But whatever.

VAN HOLLEN: You know, I guess Speaker Boehner doesn’t think that making sure that kids get an affordable education is important to our future. I think most Americans know that it is.  And it’s one of the big differences this year between Republicans and Democrats, and I can understand why the Speaker is feeling a little sensitive about it.

SCHULTZ: Well this is Roy Blunt on MSNBC yesterday and I want your reaction to this. He is saying that the student loan is supposed to be a pay-for in the Obama health care bill. Here it is:

Sen. Roy Blunt: Why is the rate as high as it is? Because it was one of the pay-for’s in the President’s health care plan. If the health care plan goes away, as the Court very well might decide, there is no longer an argument about this loan regulation.

SCHULTZ: Holy smokes. Congressman, you have got to respond to that.

VAN HOLLEN: Well Senator Blunt has it wrong on this. The reality is that, as part of the health care reconciliation bill, we actually expanded education access. We expanded affordability of college for students. And that actually increased – that helped increase the support that students get to go to college. So if we hadn’t passed that, kids would have been paying much higher [costs] than they are now.

And we know where the Republicans are on this, Ed, right? They put it in their budget here in the House just a few weeks ago. And their budget, the Republican budget, authored by Ryan and embraced fully by Governor Romney, called for the doubling of student loans beginning July 1st from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent. That’s where they stand. That’s what they believe.

Now they’ve got their finger to the wind. They are going to try and provide a head fake to the American people to get through this election. And so now they have decided to jump on board, although I will say that the way they have proposed to pay for it is going to cut important funds for women’s health – so here they go again on women’s health. The health prevention fund, which they've proposed to cut now to help students and now pit people against each other, are funds that will be used for breast cancer screening and cervical cancer screening, along with other screening of cancers.  So that’s where they want to go for the funding, instead of asking the big oil companies to get rid of their taxpayer subsidies or asking millionaires to take greater responsibility.  

SCHULTZ: I'll tell you what, they're the anti-healthcare people, no question about it, but they're trying to rope in a dead horse and get that hung up in this interest loan rate with the students, and they're trying to make the connection there. It’s just fraudulent conversation.  And now you've got Boehner out there, and here’s another one, he's trying to complain about the President using Air Force One to go around the country to talk about economic issues that students obviously care about.  I mean, they know they're off on this subject. They know they are. 

VAN HOLLEN: Well, Ed, they're trying to change the subject, because what happened was the President was gaining traction, and, you know, even Republicans – who had said that they were not going to increase the support for students, that they were going allow interest rates on students to double, that was their plan – that was their plan just a few weeks ago.  That was the Mitt Romney plan.  I mean that was all part of the House Republican Budget. As opposed to the President's budget and the Democratic alternative budget, which specifically said we're going to make sure that these interest rates don't go up. 

So what's happened is, in a few weeks – because the President has been educating the American people and talking to students about what will happen if the Republican budget were to prevail – Speaker Boehner's feeling the heat from the American people, and so they're now going to conveniently try and change their position. 

What everyone should understand is two things. One is we know where they stand, because budgets reflected their priorities. And number two, by raiding a fund that's going to provide breast cancer screening and cervical cancer screening, we know that they are really not serious about trying to help people.

Once again, they’re not talking about getting rid of the subsidies for corporate jets or big oil companies, and that’s where they are. And I think what is really important here is that people understand what a cynical game they’re playing. They’re just trying to get through this election. They’re trying to fool people long enough to get through November, but people need to understand where they are.

And if you want to know where they are, just look at their budget. Look at their budget that was fully embraced by Mitt Romney, and the President needs to really hammer on that from now until Election Day because that – it is a choice of two paths. And their path is one that, again, protects these tax breaks for millionaires and special interests at the expense of everyone and everything else, Ed. Ending the Medicare guarantee; it would have allowed the interest rates on student loans to go up; it would shred the social safety net; it would hit seniors in nursing homes who rely on Medicaid; it would hurt families and kids who rely on food and nutrition programs, especially during these tough times. That’s what they stand for. It’s all right there in their budget.

And what we are seeing now is their effort to run away from that. They’re trying to run away from it now on student loans. They’re probably going to try to run away from it when it comes to Medicare and Medicaid. We need to make it absolutely clear that that’s their plan for the country. And it’s a very different vision of America than what the President has and what the vast majority of Americans have.

SCHULTZ: Great to have you with us, Congressman – always a pleasure.

VAN HOLLEN: Great to be with you.