Posted: Wednesday, September 23, 2009 12:00 am | Updated: 4:52 pm, Tue Sep 22, 2009.
By Peter Adelsen padelsen@kokomoperspective.com | 0 comments
So far this year, Washington has been moving fast for change. Congressman Dan Burton, R-5th District, said he is a little weary about how fast and to the lengths the Democrat-led Congress is pushing for reform in the student loan industry and health care. He is also pursuing an investigation of ACORN, an organization that has come under some heat in the past months.
STUDENT LOANS
The student loan industry may need some reform, but the reform Congressman George Miller, D-Calif., chairman of the Education and Labor Committee, has already been done in the 1990's and it failed, Burton said. It also would have a strong negative affect on Indiana with Sallie Mae offices in Fishers and Muncie.
"What Miller wants to do is to take over completely the student loan program across the country, in other words, he wants the government to run it completely," he said. "What it will end up doing is like back in the 1990's the Clinton administration tried to do that and they got it passed, and as I recall, it was so inefficient that it was ultimately repealed and we went to the current program that we have now."
Burton says there will be an awful lot of dissatisfaction if the government takes control of the student loan industry.
"The private sector needs to be involved in student loans. There is no question. We've got Sallie Mae over there that's doing a really good job. Plus, we're talking about 3,000 jobs in Indiana. We certainly don't need with the unemployment problems we have to see an increase in unemployment."
Burton admits that he believes that the Democrats in the U.S. House are pursuing control in student loans because they believe the government can run things better than the private sector.
"I think it is just a mindset they have. The president, I believe, is a European-type socialist. I believe he believes that the government can run the auto industry better, the banking industry better, Wall Street better, energy better, hospitals and health care better, and student loans better. I mean, they just believe government should run everything."
As the House has pushed taking control over student loans, Burton with Rep. Peter Hoekstra, R-Mich., introduced an amendment that would remove the takeover language from the bill to save companies such as Sallie Mae. However, he said the amendment was not allowed to get a vote.
"I mean if Sallie Mae and the others were not doing a good job that would be one thing, but they have done a good job. About 70 to 75 percent of the loans around the country are through private groups like Sallie Mae. So why would people be getting loans through them if it wasn't a better choice. Plus you're doing it through the private sector with government guarantees whereas if you go to the government loan program they are estimating it's going to cost $50 billion over a decade of government money so it's going to be another drain on taxpayers whereas right now it's not."
HEALTH CARE
Burton has been actively against the Democrats' health care plan. He has proposed the Empowering Patients First Act (H.R. 3400), which would not increase taxes or increase government spending. Instead it would use the money the government receives more effectively. His plan would: protect the doctor-patient relationship, lower health-care costs, expand access to quality care and coverage and invest in prevention and wellness programs.
Burton said he does not know where the health care reform bill may be heading, but he has some ideas.
"There's a big difference of opinion between liberals and moderates in the Democrat party. The Republicans are just deaf on these bills that they've come up with in both the House and Senate. But there's a big fight between liberals and moderates, if you want to call them that, in the Democrat majority in the House and Senate. So I don't know what they are going to end up with, but it does look like the government option as they initially planned it doesn't look like it's got legs so they'll probably try to go with some kind of a co-op, which is a veiled government option."
On Sunday, President Barack Obama was seen on five television networks, including ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN and Univision, to push health care reform. On Monday, the president also appeared on "The Late Show with David Letterman." Burton says as time goes by, the president is very concerned on if he is going to get a health care reform bill.
"This is his keystone. If he doesn't get this through, he's got a problem. He has to settle for something before it's over with, politically, in my opinion."
INVESTIGATING ACORN
The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, commonly known as ACORN, has been under scrutiny by many since the months going into the 2008 general election for its voter registering practices. In the past couple weeks, this organization has come under more scrutiny because of an undercover video shot at an ACORN office in Baltimore, Md. where ACORN employees offered unethical advice to a prostitute and a pimp in order to evade tax evasion and traffic in children from El Salvador to work as prostitutes. Other similar undercover videos from offices elsewhere around the country were later released.
Burton is now trying to get Congress to investigate ACORN.
"ACORN should be defunded number one, it should be investigated number two, and it's a political organization number three. ACORN is supposed to be an organization that helps the under privileged in housing and all that other stuff and I think there is some of that. From what I've seen so far in the past week, it looks like it's a large part of criminal entity."
Burton says that Congress does its best to make sure they give the taxpayers' money to credible organizations. He says that people like Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., chairman of the House Committee on Financial Services, and Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., and others are very supportive of government intervention.
"(ACORN) used to get $150 some million then (the House) pushed through $8.5 billion that they can have access to. Then they pushed through another $1.5 billion that they can have access to. That's $10 billion. And they spent most of their time with fraudulent voting and fraudulent registering and helping prostitution."
Burton also said that the Obama administration will do whatever they can to make sure ACORN survives because of the president's close ties from when he was one of the organization's lawyers.
http://kokomoperspective.com/news/article_8564c74a-a7b8-11de-845a-001cc4c03286.html
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