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Congress debates the size of water buckets while the barn burns.
More than 7 million students and their families rely on federally subsidized Stafford loans to help pay for college. Allowing the interest rate on Stafford loans to double is a significant burden on those already struggling with education costs and high unemployment.
The U. S. department of labor indicates that it would cost Missouri borrowers $160 million if the rate is allowed to double.
The Paul Ryan budget, recently passed by the House (Billy Long is an enthusiastic supporter) gives $4.6 trillion in new tax cuts to millionaires and billionaires. It pays for those tax-cuts with reductions to social programs, including cuts in federal support for college education.
The subsidies for the Stafford loans amount to 0.16% of the federal budget and less than 1.3% of the annual crony tax breaks in the Ryan Budget.
Both the Senate and the House are debating how to pay for this 1/600 of the budget. Billy’s House bill (H.R. 4628) would cut a fund for public and preventive health care. They want to take money from people’s health prevention.
The Senate bill (S. 2343) takes a far better approach: closing a tax loophole used by certain well-off professionals to avoid Medicare taxes.
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Here again is an example where the middle class ends up paying more while the wealthly are able to circumvent the system with a tax loophole.
Medicare Trust Fund?
If the Senate Bill would increase medicare taxes collected- would that not simply increase the Medicare Trust fund, and increase the debt owed to Medicare? By lending out Medicare Trust funds at a rate that barely keeps pace with inflation, we would be risking those medicare funds.
There must be a better way. Perhaps I am misunderstanding the situation?
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