Unit Five: Public Policy

“GOP ignores veto threat, passes student loan bill”

http://www.centurylink.net/news/read.php?id=18915738&ps=1017&cat=&cps=0&lang=en&page=1

Synopsis: Republicans in the House of Representatives led a vote that passed a student loan bill. This bill would keep the interest rates down for subsidized Stafford loans at 3.4 percent and not the 6.8 percent that they would jump to if no action were to take place. Even though this bill will solve the student loan problem, the White House is planning on vetoing the bill because it will eliminate a preventive health care fund that is part of President Obama’s health care law. This preventative health program has initiatives such as breast cancer screening and children’s immunizations. Since Democrats control the Senate it is unlikely that the bill will pass. However there is a different version of the bill in Senate that would raise Social Security and Medicare payroll taxes on high-income owners of privately owned companies to cover the costs. An interest group called, the Club for Growth, pressure Republican lawmakers to oppose the bill because they thought that the government should not subsidize student loans.

Analysis: This article shows how Congress influences economic policy. In this bill, lawmakers are trying to decide what programs they need to cut, or what taxes they need to raise in order to make college more affordable. Also, it illustrates how interest groups influence legislation as well as public policy by the Club for Growth’s opposition of the bill. Also, social policy is being formed in this legislation as well because of the cuts of funding for President Obama’s preventive health care fund. The article also shows how we have a divided government and the two party platforms. Republicans are not in support of Obama’s health care law and in raising taxes. Democrats on the other hand think the opposite; they do not mind raising taxes to fund other programs.