2012年2月15日星期三

A final measure should be ready for a vote in the House on Friday

The substance of most issues, including how to pay for the unemployment benefits and doctors’ fees, had largely been worked out by Wednesday night. But Burberry belts cheap lawmakers continued to debate whether a pay freeze for federal workers or a reduction in scheduled raises would be more acceptable to some Democrats than changes to those workers’ pensions as a way to pay for the continuation of jobless benefits for the long-term unemployed.

While the committee’s work has the blessing of House Republican leadership, many rank-and-file Republicans, while cheered by a reduction in unemployment benefits and proposed erosion of the health care law, were nonetheless leaning against the deal.

“They are framing it as a middle-class tax cut even though this is a significant change to how Social Security has traditionally been treated,” said Representative Jeff Fortenberry, Republican of Nebraska, who plans to oppose the measure. “The payroll tax keeps Americans attentive to the fact that they put a little bit aside each check for Social Security. That connection is now gone.”

A final measure should be ready for a vote in the House on Friday, but the timing of a Senate vote seemed less certain.

Senator Rand Paul, Republican of Kentucky, has held up Senate votes this week in protest of a decision by Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the majority leader, to deny Mr. Paul other legislation that would strip Egypt of foreign aid for 30 days as punishment for detaining American pro-democracy workers.

Under the agreement reached by House and Senate negotiators, the current reduction in the employee’s share of the Social Security payroll tax — to 4.2 percent of wages, from 6.2 percent — would be continued to the end of the year. Revenue lost to the Social Security trust fund would be fully replaced with money from the general fund of the Treasury.

For a worker with annual earnings of $50,000, the payroll tax holiday would increase take-home pay by $1,000 over the course of the year.

The bipartisan agreement also revamps unemployment insurance, reducing the maximum duration of benefits in states with high unemployment to 73 weeks, from the current 99. Currently, fewer than half of states are eligible for 93 weeks or more of unemployment insurance, with just 18 states getting the full maximum of 99 weeks.Burberry ties, Burberry belts, Burberry scarves 2012 new arrivals.

This satisfied members from both parties, though some Democrats were disappointed they did not get more weeks. The roughly $30 billion price will be picked up by the sale of radio spectrum licenses and the federal worker benefit changes.

Under the agreement, states will be allowed to conduct drug testing for anyone who lost a job because the person failed or refused to take an employer’s drug test, and they could test anyone seeking a job that generally requires such a test, a provision similar to existing law. Further, some states would now be eligible to emulate a Georgia program that provides a stipend and workers’ compensation coverage for the unemployed in exchange for job training.

Federal workers were not pleased with the proposed changes to their pension program. Colleen M. Kelley, president of the National Treasury Employees Union, said House and Senate negotiators were tentatively planning to save $15 billion over 10 years by reducing the government contribution to federal employee pensions and requiring the workers to contribute more.

“It is absolutely outrageous that federal employees, already sacrificing $60 billion through a two-year pay freeze, would be hit again,” Ms. Kelley said.

The agreement extends the nation’s main welfare program, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, through the current fiscal year. States will have to prevent welfare recipients from using electronic benefit cards at liquor stores, casinos and strip clubs. In addition, the legislation blocks a 27 percent cut in payments to doctors treating Medicare patients. In effect, this assures that beneficiaries will have access to their doctors after March 1, when the cut was to have taken effect.

Dr. Peter W. Carmel, president of the American Medical Association, said his group was “deeply disappointed” that the agreement, while delaying the cut for 10 months, did not replace the statutory formula that requires such cuts. Republicans boasted that they had cut spending under the new health care law to help pay for Medicare spending under the agreement. For example, the agreement cuts $5 billion from a special account created by the new law to promote public health and prevent chronic diseases.

Senator Tom Harkin, Democrat of Iowa and chairman of the Senate health committee, called the cut in preventive health programs “extremely shortsighted and fiscally irresponsible.”

To help offset the cost of paying doctors Burberry belts under Medicare, the agreement will reduce payments to hospitals. The legislation cuts Medicaid payments to hospitals that serve disproportionate numbers of low-income patients. And it cuts Medicare payments to hospitals for bad debts that result when beneficiaries fail to pay deductibles and co-payments.

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