Of Summer Promises and Tender Green
By Juliet Eilperin - Washington Post
Saturday, August 30, 2003; Page A04
How did House leaders spend their summer vacation? Raising money, of course.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) hit 13 cities on her fundraising tour for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, stopping in California, Illinois, Massachusetts, Ohio and elsewhere. She did not one, but two, wine tastings in Napa (Calistoga and St. Helena) on the weekend of Aug. 23, along with a brunch in Rutherford. She traveled to Martha's Vineyard, Mass., and Boston in late July, and toured Austin, Dallas and Houston in mid-August.
This week Pelosi appeared in Cleveland and Akron with Reps. Sherrod Brown and Stephanie Tubbs Jones; stopped in Springfield, Ill., with Rep. Lane Evans; and visited San Diego with Reps. Susan Davis and Bob Filner (D-Calif.).
Pelosi spokesman Brendan Daly said the leader's nonstop touring "just shows the commitment she has. Her number one priority is to take back the House. She's traveled all over the country, and she will continue to do it." He said it was too early to release fundraising figures.
Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) also hit the West Coast to raise money for his party, but he opted for fishing over wine sipping. On Aug. 11, he fished with donors in Lake Minnetonka, near Minneapolis, and the next day he visited Oklahoma City. On Aug. 18, he headlined a breakfast in Los Angeles, stopped the next day in Medford, Ore., and on Aug. 21 was in Seattle.
Only two of the 15 people on the fishing trip -- Hastert and Rep. John Kline (R-Minn.) -- caught fish big enough to keep, officials said. That event, coupled with the day's lunch, raised $60,000. The other four events brought in another $171,000 for the National Republican Congressional Committee.
"The speaker realizes how important keeping the House is, and he graciously volunteered to spend part of his August raising money for the National Republican Congressional Committee, and we're very appreciative," NRCC spokesman Carl Forti said.
Edwards Wants Uncle Sam to Lend to Students
Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards has taken a page from the Clinton administration playbook with an ambitious plan to remake the student loan industry.
The senator from North Carolina has proposed cutting banks and Sallie Mae, which administer about two-thirds of college student loans, out of the business. Instead, Edwards wants the government to extend the loans. Rather than borrowing from banks, students would borrow directly from Uncle Sam.
His goal is to eliminate the billions of dollars in subsidies and loan guarantees the government pays annually to banks handling the loans. That money -- about $6 billion in the Bush administration's 2004 budget proposal -- helps ensure that students get a low interest rate and compensates lenders when students default. Reston-based SLM Corp., better known as Sallie Mae, manages more than $83 billion in student loans to more than 7 million borrowers.
Edwards needs those savings to fund his signature -- and surely expensive -- plan to offer one year of college tuition to students willing to work while in school. "To make college more affordable again, one of the first things we should do is stop giving away billions of taxpayer dollars to banks for student loans," the senator said at a recent campaign stop.
The idea has its roots in the Clinton administration, which first pushed to get the government into the student loan business full time. Like Edwards, President Bill Clinton had hoped to route all student loans through the government. But after a protracted fight with banks and their mostly Republican allies, he settled for the current system, in which the government handles about one-third of the loans.
Now, as then, many banks oppose the proposal, saying it wouldn't be cost-effective. They've been buoyed by the fact that the proposal, which Edwards first mentioned in November, has attracted little attention. But they're keeping a wary eye on it nonetheless.
"The Edwards plan is a curious revival of a plan made in 1992, considered by the Congress -- and rejected," said John Dean, special counsel to the Consumer Bankers Association. "The savings claimed are far from certain."
Political researcher Brian Faler contributed to this report.
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