John Boehner is concerned that the "challenges that young Americans face" are being used for political purposes, which is exactly why he's going to use the challenges they face for political purposes.
The House of Representatives has found a group of people they can all agree to screw in exchange for extending the current interest rate on Stafford loans for one year, and that group is people with chronic health problems. Because there aren't enough chronically ill people in the world for the Republicans.
House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) announced on Wednesday that the House will take up legislation to extend the Bush-era 2007 College Cost Reduction and Access Act, a measure to prevent interest rates on subsidized Stafford student loans from doubling from 3.4 to 6.8 percent in July of this year. The decision comes after President Obama urged college students across America to call, tweet, and Facebook their members of Congress and ask them to pass the legislation.
But Boehner’s proposal would finance the $5.9 billion cost of maintaining the 3.4 percent interest rate for one year by repealing the Affordable Care Act’s Prevention & Public Health Fund, financing that’s designed to help states and communities fight chronic conditions like heart disease, cancer, stroke, and diabetes, and ultimately reduce health care costs.
Boehner claims the prevention fund harms small businesses by making it more difficult to hire people. A notion so absurd I can hardly believe even he would say it.
The high cost of healthcare is a major obstacle to hiring in America, but the prevention fund is aimed at reducing the cost of healthcare by ensuring that people don't get sick to begin with rather than waiting to treat illness after-the-fact.
None of this would be necessary if the Republicans hadn't pledged their tax-raising virginity to Grover Norquist, the result of which is a mad dash to find a program -- any program -- they can all agree to cut to extend another.