529 Tax Plan

Obama plans to tax 529 tax plans which were tax-free growth vehicles to pay for college. This basically renders them useless, if I understand correctly.

At the risk of sounding like some sort of militia person, it isn't clear to me why the Federal government has any involvement with colleges. Why is the Fed in the business of student financial aid in the first place? I can see the Feds giving out grants for awesome students of low need or to encourage study in important industries, but as far as I can tell, the loans have led to bloated tuition and a lot terrible debt, without any corresponding improvement to the education of Americans. In fact, I suspect college degrees of yesteryear were more rigorous than today just by my casual observation of students.

Also, this makes me think the Roth IRA is not safe.