A Pair Of Important Deadlines Coming Up

    One of the many positive ramifications of President Barack Obama's Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) is the upcoming federally-funded state Medicaid expansion, a topic that the New Hampshire House and Senate are currently reconciling. The Granite State's Medicaid budget covers low-income children, parents with nondisabled children under 18, seniors, pregnant women, and citizens with certain disabilities. The proposed expansion would additionally cover any working adult under age 65 whose annual earnings are below 138% of the federal poverty limit, currently about $15,000 for a single adult, financed entirely by federal dollars.  All New Hampshire has to do is accept the funding.

   A no-brainer, right? Well, the Democrat-led House last Tuesday issued their recommendation which would commit the state to accept the coverage indefinitely beginning January 1, 2014, totaling $340 million annually over the first seven years of the expansion. But the GOP-led Senate instead proposed a "study group" which is actually being charged with devising an alternative to accepting the subsidy.  Salem's Chuck Morse, the Senate Finance Chairman, is the point man on their end and will have a lot to do with whatever this "study group" comes up with, and a lot of explaining if they refuse the federal largesse.

   There's a total of 58,000 working poor who would benefit by this legislation that wouldn't cost the state one thin dime to implement, leaving no excuse for the Senate's desire to find another method not involving Obamacare to finance. The five House/five Senate - member Fiscal Committee, currently (as usual) divided along party lines,  has until their August meeting to arrive at a decision regarding the acceptance of the funding. 

   Here's hoping that our Senate's 13-11 GOP majority puts aside their resistance to All Things Obama for a change and signs on to this program that most of the rest of the states are already on board with. We all get the fact that Washington D.C. is going to continue to be a hotbed of conservative-led turmoil for the second half of Obama's term in office, even on many issues that the Tea Party-cowed Republicans would've formerly favored. But there's no reason why thousands of Granite State citizens should have to suffer economically for their intransigence.

   Tuesday July 1 looms as critical for many current American college attendees, as well as future students. That's the date that their loan interest rate, an extremely important focus for many regarding even affording college, will double from 3.4% to 6.8%. The haggling over whether or not to keep the rate at its current one is predictably being waged by most Republicans in Congress, who have been moaning for years that students don't deserve this break. This is similar to how their counterparts three generations ago fought against the 1944 GI Bill, which assisted thousands of veterans and later their offspring (including me) to afford university. The GOP railing back then was that servicemen and their children shouldn't receive financial assistance, as higher education was supposed to be reserved only for the rich. The more things change, the more they remain the same.

   Again here in 2013 the conservative wing still doesn't see the forest for the trees. The plain truth is that granting our young adults this springboard to elevate themselves is one of the linchpins of a thriving, affluent nation, as one of America's greatest assets is an educated workforce, particularly now when so many positions in science and technology, business and social services REQUIRE college degrees to even get hired in the first place. The "I've got mine" philosophy doesn't hold true here, as we'll all be going down as a nation if thousands of our smartest, most talented youth wind up in dead-end jobs for life and are denied their chance to reach their full potential if we make college unaffordable to them. 

   Countries including Norway, France and Sweden offer tuition costs of around 3% of their total population's median income : here college expenditures hover at just over 50%. Australia and New Zealand among others grant no-interest loans to their college students, to be repaid after graduation and they join the workforce.  

   Nobody is claiming that America should follow those paths, as our national cost structures and outlays are certainly different from those examples. But new senator Elizabeth Warren's proposed legislation, the "Bank On Student's Loan Fairness Act", certainly deserves more deliberation that simply consigning college attendees to even more future debt does. This bill stipulates that, going forward, the student loan interest rate will be tied to whatever our bank loan rate is, currently a miniscule 0.75%. The idea has been disparaged by most  Washington Republicans, who apparently don't see the disconnect of letting the banking industry, which almost crippled our entire economy until saved by last decade's bailouts, continue to reap their low-interest rewards, while at the same time forcing a rate NINE TIMES HIGHER on our youth trying to get an education.   

   Warren said last week that "our students are just as important to our recovery as our banks". And she's correct, whether or not right-wing bastions like the National Review and the Brookings Institute want to admit it. The hope is that Congress gets it right in the next couple of weeks and at least keeps the rate stable, as the financial fate of a whole generation of America's higher-education future is depending on it.

   Finally, a pair of sincere RIPs for two former politicians who sadly passed away last week. Windham's Carolyn Webber, a courageous woman and former Rockingham County representative who I had the pleasure of working with last decade died of COPD on June 13. She served one term in the combined Salem/Windham wing of the House last decade as the only Democrat, and was regularly touted by her GOP peers as one of the hardest working members of the group. She stood up for the working middle class virtues that most of us share, as well as maintained a wealth of compassion for the less fortunate, and would've accomplished a lot more for all of us if she's been given the chance by our local voters. I was proud to hold her signs.

   And Massachusetts' estimable Paul Cellucci, who served with distinction as William Weld's lieutenant governor from 1991-1997 and governor from 1997-2001 until ascending to Canadian ambassador from 2001-2005, died after a 2 1/2 year battle against ALS on June 8. Paul spent his final last years after diagnosis travelling the country tirelessly raising research funds against this cruel killer. He, along with his great friend and fellow philanthropist Weld, navigated the running of our sister state with great anti-tax, social moderate diligence and success, back when being a Republican didn't mean kowtowing to people like Grover Norquist and alienating entire demographics of Americans to keep the extremists happy. Both of these class acts will be missed by all who knew them.