As I predicted, the health care bill raids students loans to help pay for health care nationalization. The student loan takeover bill would have used $61 billion in savings from taking over the student loan program to expand the Pell Grant program. However, Democratic leaders were having trouble making their health care reconciliation bill come out even (it cannot be considered under Senate rules if it expands the deficit) so they siphoned off $10 billion of that pool.
This gives an indication of where Democratic priorities are.
POSTSCRIPT: Some will try to rebut this by pointing out that the original legislation also dedicated $10 billion to deficit reduction, but that was when the takeover was expected to net $87 billion in savings, enough to pay for the Pell Grant expansion with money to spare. The CBO later reduced its savings estimate to less than the expansion would cost, necessitating a smaller expansion than originally planned. The decision to set aside $10 billion to offset health care nationalization will reduce it further.
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