Democratic Congressional Candidate Dan Seals held his first-ever press conference with high school media outlets from across the 10th district, where he unveiled his plan to make higher education more affordable and accessible for middle class families. Since 2001, the average cost of tuition at a public university has risen 40%—from $3,739 to $6,185—pricing out an estimated 200,000 students every year. Seals was introduced by Buffalo Grove resident and recent college graduate, Heidi Gould, who discussed the challenges her family faced when she was applying to college.

“The cost of higher education hit my family hard, eating away at savings accounts and retirement funds. Today, the critical decisions I make about where to live and what job to take are overshadowed by the student loan debt that I graduated from college with,” Gould said. “Had the tax code been simpler, my parents and I would have been able to take advantage of some of the breaks that we so desperately needed.”

Seals highlighted the confusion many families face when deciding to send their children to college. The IRS 970 booklet, which outlines tax benefits for education, is over 80 pages in length and details 12 different higher education tax benefits, which apply to different income levels, expenses, and kinds of schools. As a result of this complexity, the Government Accounting Office estimates that over 600,000 tax filers every year fail to claim higher education tax benefits they are entitled to.

“A college diploma today is what a high school diploma was for the previous generation. It is a requirement to fully participate in today’s economy and is also the key to a better life,” Seals said. “While our tax code is meant to make it easier for our children to go to college, it offers too much complexity and not enough help.”

Citing the “Universal Higher Education and Lifetime Learning Act” sponsored by Rep. Rahm Emanuel in the House of Representatives, Seals proposed collapsing all of the different higher education tax incentives into one, easy-to-understand $3,000 tax credit, which would cover half of the cost of tuition at the average public university.

He advocated for expanding access to the credit to more families middle class by making it available to individuals making up to $80,000 and married couples making up to $160,000. Also, under the current law, families who have no income tax liability—nearly half of all families with children—are not eligible for the available tax credits. Seals’ proposal would benefit these families for the first time by making the credit partially refundable.

“At the end of the day, this proposal is about expanding opportunity,” Seals said. “It will help more of our students get into college and leave them less indebted when they get out. In Congress, I will fight to bring this change so that the promise of the American dream is within reach of all of our children.”

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DATE: Tuesday, May 13, 2008

TIME: 5:00 - 7:30 p.m.

LOCATION: Wheeling-Palatine Democratic Headquarters, 1310 West Northwest Highway, Arlington Heights

Register here for multiple events or call Nathan at 847-945-8900.

When I saw the "Shock and Awe" on TV during our invasion of Iraq , I was saddened by the thought that innocent civilians would be killed -- men, women and children.

That count is now reported as 1.2 million. And now that the deaths of our own brave and loyal troops exceeds 4,000, and nearly 30,000 have been wounded, many maimed for life, it's time to examine how we became involved in Iraq and why we are still there.

The "Downing Street Memo" shed some light on how the Iraq War began. It contained the minutes of a meeting held by Prime Minister Tony Blair with some of his senior ministers and advisers eight months before the invasion of Iraq .

It clearly stated that Bush wanted to depose Saddam Hussein by military force. But he knew Congress and the international community would not condone waging a war for the purpose of regime change.

Therefore, Bush and his administration planned to fabricate false information about Al Qaeda and WMDs in Iraq to extract an affirmative vote from Congress for an invasion, and to convince the United Nations to go along.

We may never know the real reason why the Bush-Cheney administration wanted get us mired down in Iraq for five years to date, instead of pursuing Al Qaeda where they really were and are, at the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.

This unwinnable war should be terminated on a realistic short term timetable. Occupation was never foreseen as an objective by our Congress or by the American people.

How do we communicate with Congress when our Representative Mark Kirk is not interested in discussing the Iraq War, or its downside, and insanity of it in public meetings?

I agree with Dan Seals that we need a responsible redeployment. We need a true Representative in Congress. The sane thing is to vote for Dan Seals.

      
      George Rosenblit, Highland Park



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