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With an insider’s eye, Hot Dish tracks the tastiest bits of Minnesota’s political scene and keep you up-to-date on those elected to serve you.

Contributors in Minnesota: Jennifer Brooks, Baird Helgeson, Patricia Lopez, Jim Ragsdale, Rachel E. Stassen-Berger and Glen Stubbe. Contributors in D.C.: Kevin Diaz and Corey Mitchell.

Posts about President Obama

Franken boosted by study of Obamacare premium limits

Posted by: Kevin Diaz Updated: June 6, 2013 - 4:03 PM

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As Washington’s political class looks warily toward the implementation of Obamacare during the 2014 election year, a little-known piece of the law backed by U.S. Sen. Al Franken has saved consumers in the individual market an estimated $2.1 billion, according to a new analysis by the Kaiser Family Foundation.
 
The report, which was hailed by the Minnesota Democrat's office Thursday, shows how the so-called medical loss ratio implemented in 2011 has reduced insurers' administrative costs and profits by requiring them to issue rebates if they fail to spend a certain amount of premium dollars on health care expenses.
 
The savings include some $241 million in rebates that insurers estimate they will pay to customers in the individual market this year based on their performance in 2012.
 
The rule requires insurers to spend at least 80 cents of every premium dollar on medical care. The proportion insurers must spend goes up to 85 cents for policies sold to large employers.
 
The report is particularly welcome for Franken, who is running for reelection in a year when the public will get its first real taste of the insurance exchanges being set up under President Obama’s controversial health care overhaul.

Klobuchar, Franken-backed student loan plan fails to gain support

Posted by: Corey Mitchell Updated: June 7, 2013 - 3:34 AM

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The U.S. Senate deadlocked Thursday over federal student loan rates, narrowing their window to prevent rates on certain loans from doubling for about 7 million borrowers on July 1.

With rates for new subsidized loans scheduled to jump to 6.8 percent in roughly three weeks unless Congress acts, competing bills fell short of the 60 votes needed to overcome a filibuster in the Democratic-led upper chamber.

Republicans blocked a Democratic plan, supported by U.S. Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Al Franken, that would lock in the current 3.4 percent rate for subsidized loans two years, allowing Congress more time to debate an overhaul of federal lending.

Klobuchar and Franken were among the Democrats who thwarted a Republican proposal that would tie loan rates to the yield on the government's 10-year Treasury bill, plus 3 percentage points.

The issues hits home for lawmakers in Minnesota, where the average college graduates leaves school with nearly $30,000 in debt.

"... the last thing Congress should do is saddle future graduates with more debt," Franken said in a statement. "I'm disheartened that today we weren't able to prevent the interest rate on subsidized Stafford loans from doubling, but I will keep fighting until we get the job done."

Like their colleagues in the Senate, the Republican-led House already passed legislation that would link students' loan rates to financial markets. The House plan, written by Republican U.S. Rep. John Kline, would reset interest rates every year, but include a cap on interest rates facing students.

President Obama threatened to veto his legislation, arguing that the plan would create uncertainty for students and families beacuse the rates would rise or fall with the market each year.

Thursday's developments frustrated Kline, chairman of the House Education and the Workforce Committee.

"The Senate showed us again today that they can't get anything done," he said. "They can sit back and criticize us, but they need to pass something."

Last year, with the July 1 deadline looming, lawmakers approved a one-year extension of the 3.4 percent rate.

This year, committee leaders, including Kline, hoped to hammer out deals in their respective chambers before coming together to iron out the differences before the cutoff date. But the prospects for compromise seem dimmer this time around, lawmakers said Thursday.

National Dems target Kline in student loan standoff

Posted by: Corey Mitchell Updated: May 31, 2013 - 2:57 PM

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The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has launched online and print ads in six college newspapers that single out Republicans, including U.S. Rep. John Kline, on the issue of student loan rates.

The ads will run in the Minnesota Daily, the campus newspaper of the University of Minnesota, which is not in Kline's district.

With the rate on federally subsidized student loans set to double on July 1 if Congress doesn't act, lawmakers remain divided over a solution. Without an agreement, the loan rate for undergraduate students would double, rising from 3.4 percent to 6.3 percent.

Last week, House Republicans passed Kline's plan to address the pending increase by switching loan rates to market-based system. But it's unlikely to become law because Democrats don't approve of it. The day before the House approved Kline's legislation, the White House threatened to veto it, arguing that the plan would create uncertainty for students and families.

For the second consecutive summer, the pending rate hike will be a hot-button issue for college students across the country. On average, Minnesota college students graduate with a $30,000 loan debt.

During an event at the White House today, President Obama publicly called on Cognress to prevent the loan rates from doubling. Like Kline, Obama has also voiced support for a switch to market rate loans, which would end the system in which rates are set by Congress.

Kline, the chairman of the House Education and the Workforce Committee, spent Thursday touring campuses and meeting with students in his district.

"It's time for the president to stop politicizing the student loan issue," Kline said in a statement today. "Instead of holding campaign-style events, the president should urge his Senate colleagues to put forward their own plan to solve the problem."

Facing a similar deadline on the student loan issue last summer, Congress simply extended the 3.4 percent rate for another year. Now the matter has resurfaced, with little more than four weeks until zero hour.

The DCCC would not reveal how much they're spending on the ad campaign against Kline.

U.S. House approves Kline student loan bill, but Senate fight looms

Posted by: Kevin Diaz Updated: May 23, 2013 - 12:18 PM

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With student loan rates set to double in five weeks, the U.S. House passed a bill Thursday by U.S. Rep. John Kline, R-Minn., to replace the current fixed rates with floating rates tied to government borrowing costs.
 
But the largely party-line 221-198 vote does not avert the crisis for an estimated 7 million students who get federal student loans to meet the challenges of rising college costs and diminishing employment prospects.
 
Under a White House veto threat, Kline’s bill sets the stage for a high-stakes standoff with the Democratic-led Senate to meet a July 1 deadline, with tens of thousands of students looking on from Minnesota, which ranks third nationally in overall student debt.
 
The Obama administration and many congressional Democrats have embraced a switch to market rate loans, ending a system in which rates are set by Congress. But the two sides have yet to come together on which market indicators to use, and how to protect the neediest students from rising rates in the future.
 
Without an agreement in the coming weeks, the federally subsidized loan rate for undergraduate students is scheduled to jump from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent, doubling the borrowing costs for Minnesota students, who now graduate at an average of nearly $30,000 in debt.

White House threatens to veto Kline's student loan bill

Posted by: Kevin Diaz Updated: May 22, 2013 - 5:33 PM

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The White House has threatened to veto a student loan bill sponsored by U.S. Rep. John Kline, R-Minn., which would replace the current fixed rates with floating rates tied to government borrowing costs.
 
Kline expressed disappointment in the White House action, saying his bill is based on President Obama’s own proposal to move to a market-based interest rate, rather than one dictated by Congress. The House is scheduled to vote on Kline’s plan on Thursday.
 
But Democrats and student groups worry about subjecting students to variable interest rates without easier repayment terms and other protections in the White House plan.
 
Democrats have rallied around a plan to freeze the current government-mandated rate of 3.4 percent for two years to buy time for the long-term solution both sides say they want. Without some agreement, the rate is scheduled to double to 6.8 percent on July 1.

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