#NVSen Berkley Cuts Student Loan Benefits To Pay For ObamaCare

In NV, Berkley waffles on ObamaCare; In Washington DC, she pays for it on backs of students

(Las Vegas, NV) – Seven-term Congresswoman Shelley Berkley today chose to allow student loan interest rates to spike rather than eliminate a wasteful ObamaCare slush fund. Her vote to protect the President’s massive health care law comes just weeks after she backed down her support for ObamaCare while campaigning in Nevada.

“Considering Congresswoman Shelley Berkley has been tip-toeing away from ObamaCare when in Nevada, this was her chance to prove her worth in Washington DC. Instead, Shelley Berkley doubled-down on the government takeover, paying for the $2.6 trillion law on the backs of students,” said Chandler Smith, Heller for Senate spokeswoman.

In Nevada this month, candidate Berkley “stopped short Wednesday of urging the U.S. Supreme Court to uphold the federal health care law supported by Democrats and abhorred by Republicans. Pressed about her position after her speech, she told reporters that she supports health care access for the nation’s uninsured, but again declined to defend the law.” (Cristina Silva, Rep. Berkley champions small businesses in Vegas, Associated Press, 4/16/12)

But back in Washington DC, Shelley Berkley has twice targeted students to pay for the government healthcare takeover:

• In 2010, Berkley voted to pay for the healthcare law by eliminating the Federal Family Education Loan Program.
• This program “has helped generations of students attend college.” The termination was a “result of a provision in the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act—the health care reform bill—that President Barack Obama signed into law on March 30. (Mike Costanza, “Termination of student loan program causes changes,” Rochester Business Journal, 5/21/10)

Today, instead of freezing student interest rates, Shelley Berkley chose protect a slush fund created by ObamaCare—a fund that even President Obama has been willing to cut.

• In September 2011, President Obama recommended using $3.5 billion of the Prevention and Public Health Fund (PPHF) to reduce the federal deficit. In his 2013 budget request to Congress, he proposed cutting the fund by $4 billion. (“Democrats Increased Student Loan Rates To Pay for Healthcare Law,” April 26, 2012)

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