At her weekly Capitol press briefing Thursday, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi announced Democrats will whip against GOP legislation to prevent student loan interest rates from doubling later this year, because they propose to pay for it by nixing a public health fund created by the Affordable Care Act.
Pelosi characterized the Repubilcan bill in familiar terms — describing it as a new salvo in an ongoing GOP “war on women.
“We won’t have [the interest rate] go from 3.4 to 6.8 but in order to pay for it we’re going to make an assault on women’s health,” Pelosi said. “Make another assault on women’s health. Continue our assault on women’s health.”
Democrats keep returning to this theme for a reason — they have a huge advantage among women this election year, and want to retain or grow it between now and November. To back up the substantive point, Pelosi noted that the Prevention and Public Health Fund actively pays for screenings and other health services that disproportionately benefits women.
Republicans note that Democrats already agreed to dip into the fund once — to help pay for a payroll tax cut extension. But the GOP bill would repeal it altogether.
“We will not support a bill that robs Peter to pay Paul,” Pelosi said. “We will be whipping against the student loan bill as it is proposed by the Republicans.”
