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House Journal: Page 1893: Tuesday, April 25, 1995

I am strongly opposed to charging the students interest on their
student loans while they're in college. That will add 18 to 20
percent to the cost of education for a lot of our young people.
We'll have fewer people going to school. We want more people
going to school. I think that is a mistake.
I believe if we're going to have a tax cut, it should be
targeted to middle class people and to educational needs. I
believe strongly we should do two things more than anything
else. Number one, give more people the advantage of an IRA,
which they can put money into and save and then withdraw to pay
for education or health care costs, purchase of a first-time
home, or care of an elderly parent tax-free. Number two, allow
the deduction of the cost of education after high school to all
American middle-class families. Now, that, I think, will make a
difference.
This is very important for you because, remember we have a
smaller total tax cut, if we target it to the middle class, we
can have deficit reduction without cutting education. We can
have deficit reduction without having severe cuts in Medicare.
Governor Branstad said today, one of our biggest problems is the
unfairness of the distribution of Medicare funds. You are right.
It's not fair to rural America. But there's a lot more coming,
and more than you need to have if we have an excessive tax cut
that is not targeted to education and to the middle class. 
So that, in brief, is the laundry list of the new federalism -
the things you need to decide on. I do not believe these issues
I have spoken with you about have a partisan tinge in Des
Moines. They need not have one in Washington.
But I invite you, go back home - this is being televised tonight
- go back home and talk to the people you represent, and ask
them what they want you to say to your members of Congress about
what we do in Washington; what you do in Des Moines; what we do
in our private lives; what should be spent to reduce the
deficit; what should be spent on a tax cut; what should be in a
block grant; and where should we stand up and say we've got to
protect the children of the country. These are great and
exciting issues.
Believe me, if we make the right decisions - if we make the
right decisions, the 21st century will still be the America
century.
Thank you all, and God Bless you. 
On motion by Horn of Linn, the joint session was adjourned at
8:20 p.m.

Iowa General Assembly

Index: House Journal (76th General Assembly: Session 1)

© 1995 Cornell College and League of Women Voters of Iowa

Comments? hjourn@legis.iowa.gov.

Last update: Sun Jan 14 21:05:02 CST 1996
URL: /DOCS/GA/76GA/Session.1/HJournal/01800/01893.html
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