College Will Soon Be Cheaper, More Accessible, Says Education Secretary

By Chingyu Wang-Talk Radio News Service

Secretary of Education Arne Duncan touted recent changes to the education system Tuesday after President Barack Obama signed the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act.

Duncan, who spoke with reporters in a conference call, pointed to the expansion of Pell Grants as a major change and stressed that it will make college drastically cheaper and more accessible.

“Students are going to receive more Pell Grants,” said Duncan. “You can literally going to school for free with these Pell Grants.”

Duncan also explained that Americans who choose a career in public service will receive benefits.

"If you go into public service... after 10 years of public service work, all of your debt will be forgiven.”

Director of the Domestic Policy Council Melody Barnes, who joined Duncan in Tuesday's call, outlined the Obama administration's long-term aim for education.

“[President Obama's] goal is that the nation should graduate the highest proportion of college graduates in the world by the year 2020,” Barnes said.

Healthcare Fight Not Over, Say GOP'ers

Although President Barack Obama will soon sign the main health reform bill passed by the House last night, Republican lawmakers aren't convinced that their window of opportunity to 'kill the bill' has closed. Hours after the House passed the Senate's bill, as well as a subsequent reconciliation bill, Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) drafted legislation to repeal them.

“Americans across the country are outraged that liberals have made an unconstitutional bill full of special interest bribes the law of the land. Democrats will pay a price for their overreach. This fight is far from over. Now the work begins to repeal this monstrosity and restore the principles of freedom that made America a great nation," said King in a statement released Monday morning.

King's effort will most likely enjoy support from at least a few on the other side of Capitol Hill.

Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) has already said he will introduce a repeal measure in the Senate, and during an appearance on ABC this morning Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) vowed "we're going to repeal this."

Realistically, Republicans will more than likely have to win control of both Houses this fall in order to have a shot at repealing the soon-to-be laws. Additionally, without 60 seats in the Senate, Republicans would have to use the same reconciliation process they have assailed Democrats over the past few months for using. However, while attaining a super-majority is out of the question, Republicans are betting on the fact that Obamacare will pay dividends for their candidates later this year.

One such candidate is Rev. Isaac Hayes (R), a youth Minister from Chicago, who sees healthcare as a way to defeat Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-Ill.) in his race to get re-elected to the House.

"I believe the process by which health insurance reform has been jammed down our throats will be the centerpiece of the November election...America knows this is a government grab of one-sixth of the economy and they are encouraging Republicans to repeal this bill the moment we are sworn in as the 112th Congress," Hayes told Talk Radio News Service on Monday.

Democrats Writing Healthcare Bill Behind Closed Doors, Gregg Accuses

By Laurel Brishel Prichard
University of New Mexico/Talk Radio News Service

Sens. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.) and Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) said Thursday that the health reform bill must first become a law before reconciliation can be used to amend it.

“So much of this bill may be subject to the Byrd Rule and may go in one way and come out another way, assuming it comes out at all,” Gregg told reporters during a brief session.

Senate Republicans have secured 41 signatures on a letter demanding that reconciliation only be used on legislation involving budget adjustments, and not major policy changes, said Alexander.

“If any sentence is deemed that the policy is more significant then the budget adjustments that it applies to...it will be knocked out, the paragraph will be knocked out, and the section will be knocked out,” said Gregg.

Alexander reiterated a GOP desire to deal with reforming the nation's healthcare system in a "step-by-step" manner. Gregg agreed, and argued that a more piecemeal approach would yield a more transparent process.

“The simple fact is [Democrats] are hiding the bill. This is another one of those processes where it's being written in a hidden room, behind a hidden room, behind a hidden door,” said Gregg.

For Democrats, Health Reform Isn't About Fixing The System, Says Gregg

By Chingyu Wang
Talk Radio News Service

Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.) said Thursday that, for Democrats, policy has taken a backseat to politics in the ongoing debate over health care reform.

"This dialogue right now is no longer about substance, it's no longer about the purposes, it's just about 'I need to win because I need to win, because I need to win,'" said Gregg. "They see a loss as being a loss of credibility, it's no longer about the policy or the effectiveness or really about health care."

By metaphorically referring to the nation as a defibrillator, Gregg said on Thursday that his biggest concern over healthcare reform is the $500 billion worth of cuts to Medicare Democrats are proposing, which in his view is significant to the economy.

Medicare's $38 trillion fund "is the power source for defibrillator when we have this fiscal cardiac arrest as a nation," said Gregg. "And if you use it up now to create new entitlements...you know we're going to aggravate the cardiac arrest. Then the defibrillator has no energy."

Gregg added, however, that Medicare spending should "absolutely" be adjusted to make it solvent.

On the possibility of Democrats using reconciliation to pass reform, Gregg labeled it as a tool by which the Democrats can "buy the votes to pass the big bill."

"Reconciliation, by its definition, [means] you have to change a law," said Gregg. "You can't reconcile a bill that is not passed."

"It was never created for the purposes of doing policy."

Cantor, Kyl Rail Against Reconciliation

A pair of leading Republican lawmakers said Wednesday that Democrats are attempting to bend the rules by using reconciliation to try and pass health care reform.

“If the Senate bill was acceptable to most Americans...we wouldn’t even be having a discussion about reconciliation,” said House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.), who added that Democrats are making a “deliberate attempt...to circumvent the rules.”

Cantor suggested that Democrats favor using the quickest means possible to pass healthcare in order to have it finished before the Easter break. Failure to do so, he said, would produce a repeat of what occurred last August, when members who held town-hall meetings were confronted tempestuously by constituents who peppered them with questions over the bill.

“There’s a lot of uncertainty surrounding reconciliation,” said Cantor. “If [the Democrats] ram this bill through the House...they’ll lose their majority.”

Senate Minority Whip John Kyl (R-Ariz.) said the debate over how to pass healthcare has created an even larger wedge between the two parties, and has shoved several other important issues, such as energy, non-proliferation and immigration reform to the back-burner. According to Kyl, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is to blame for imposing a “take-it-or-leave-it” approach on the GOP.

Turning to face Cantor, the number two Republican in the Senate said he understands why House members might be leery of the Senate passing a healthcare bill that meets their wishes. “I can see why House members don’t trust the Senate to go along with this charade.”

In fact, Kyl might have been right. In late January, House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.) told Talk Radio News Service that "The House, as you know, has some problems trusting the Senate."

While Kyl admitted that his party’s objective moving forward is to defeat the bill, he refuted the notion that the GOP is simply the ‘party of no’

“We are actually willing to work with [the President],” Kyl said. “We’re in conversations with [Democrats] all the time,” added Cantor.