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April 28 (Bloomberg) -- Republicans and Democrats are squaring offover freezing student-loan interest rates in a partisan fight thatresembles lawmakers' recent confrontation over extending thepayroll tax cut. The student-loan standoff could consume the energies of House andSenate leaders after they return from a week-long recess as theelection race between President Barack Obama and Republicanchallenger Mitt Romney heats up. The payroll-tax fight lasted twomonths before Congress passed a $145 billion extension measure inFebruary. The student-loan dispute carries "a real downside" for Republicans,"but it's not quite as radioactive as the payroll tax," said JohnPitney, a political scientist at Claremont- McKenna College inClaremont, California. This time "they are trying to frame the issue to their advantage"by "passing something and trying to shift the blame forobstructionism to the Democrats," he said. The Republican-led House, defying a veto threat from the WhiteHouse, voted 215-195 yesterday to extend the current 3.4 percentinterest rate on government student loans that is set to double onJuly 1. The Obama administration called the measure "politicallymotivated" because it would finance the $5.9 billion subsidy byabolishing a public-health fund. Democrats accused Republicans of what House Minority Leader NancyPelosi called an "assault on women's health" because the measurewould eliminate the health fund, which has provided breast andcervical cancer screenings as well as child immunization andprenatal tests for birth defects and developmental disorders. Theycited a USA Today/Gallup poll showing Romney trailing Obama amongwomen voters by 18 percentage points. 'Where Are the Women?' "We will continue to ask the question: Where are the women?" NewYork Democratic Representative Carolyn Maloney told reportersbefore the vote. "Republicans have worked very hard to earn thatgender gap, bit by bit, vote by vote, defunding by defunding andinsult by insult." House Speaker John Boehner, who had rushed the legislation to thefloor after Obama toured college campuses in three swing states toprod Congress to act, maintained that Republicans had planned allalong to avert the interest-rate increase. "No one wants to see student loans go up," Boehner said. "Why dopeople insist we have to have a political fight on something wherethere is no fight?" Boehner, who had derided the public-health account as a "slushfund," also rejected the Democrats' charge against his party aboutwomen's health. "To accuse us of wanting to gut women's health isabsolutely not true," Boehner said in a floor speech. "Give me abreak." 'Slush Fund' Other House Republicans agreed. "What we are talking about is usinga slush fund that is provided" to the health and human servicessecretary "to spend as she sees fit," said John Kline, theMinnesota Republican who is chairman of the House Education and theWorkforce Committee. "That is somehow perceived as an attack onwomen, what a surprise in this election year." Kline said there were other sources of money for the women's healthinitiatives that are financed by the preventive health fund. Boehner claimed Democrats earlier this year had supported taking $5billion from the fund to finance the extension of the payroll taxcut through December. Democrats "weren't happy that was the only way" Republicans "wouldagree to the payroll tax reduction," Pelosi said. The earlierexample provides "all the more reason to leave the rest of themoney" in the fund, she said. Retroactive Adjustment Unlike the payroll tax fight, Congress isn't under a hard- and-fastdeadline to avert the doubling of the interest rate on studentloans from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent. I am an expert from zogear.com, while we provides the quality product, such as China Dental Cotton Rolls , China Dental Impression Tray, Dental Face Mask,and more.
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