rssThe New, Leaner Jobs Bill
Thursday, June 17, 2010 at 10:58 am
- 7 Comments
Democrats have been trimming and cutting and adding measures to the jobs bill — also known as the extenders’ bill or H.R. 4213 — that stalled out in the Senate. Yesterday, to appease deficit hawks and the 12 Democrats who voted against authorizing emergency deficit spending on the bill, they trimmed back unemployment benefits and reimbursements to doctors, saving around $20 billion.
The new version takes away a $25-a-week supplement to federally extended unemployment insurance payments, authorized last November, saving $5.8 billion. Anyone receiving the $25 will continue to get it until the expiry of their benefits or Dec. 7, whichever is sooner. New claimants will not receive the benefit. And, trimming $16.4 billion, the bill will stave off a 21 percent cut to Medicare reimbursements to doctors just until November, rather than next year.
The negotiations also revised upward the amount of money investment managers need to declare open to income taxes, rather than capital gains taxes, and hiked a tax on oil.
The initial bill that failed in the Senate spent $140 billion, $80 billion of which would have added to the deficit. The House had to trim its bill twice to appease deficit-wary “Blue Dog” Democrats — including dropping $24 billion in Medicaid funding for states. That provision remains in the Senate bill.
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7 Comments
Pingback posted June 17, 2010 @ 12:02 pm
[...] The New, Leaner Jobs Bill “Democrats have been trimming and cutting and adding measures to the jobs bill — also known as the extenders’ bill or H.R. 4213 — that stalled out in the Senate. Yesterday, to appease deficit hawks and the 12 Democrats who voted against authorizing emergency deficit spending on the bill, they trimmed back unemployment benefits and reimbursements to doctors, saving around $20 billion.” [...]
Pingback posted June 17, 2010 @ 3:32 pm
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by UppityWomyn, WashIndependent. WashIndependent said: The New, Leaner Jobs Bill – http://bit.ly/8YZhdw [...]
Comment posted June 17, 2010 @ 4:26 pm
I don't know why this is so hard. This kind of spending was a requirement, because of zero spending in infrastructure during the Bush administration. Couple that with the recession, now it has become desperate need.
While the deficit hawks complain, this country will NOT get back on it's feet any faster by cutting much needed funding in those areas hardest hit by the recession.
I wish they would stop screwing around and just pass the bill with the amounts NEEDED to get folk back to WORK!
Comment posted June 17, 2010 @ 5:36 pm
Good points by monkey99. While were at it, why don't be cut some of the garbage in the defense budget and use that to support the unemployed – because if we don't help the 15 million Americans, our economy may well falter and fall into a depression, instead of recession.
Comment posted June 17, 2010 @ 6:18 pm
I am deeply angry and ashamed at my own party, the Democratic Party, for its cowardice on HR 4213 . Not to let the Republicans off the hook, however butt kicking starts at home! Vote out the deficit chicken hawks!
For example:
Senator Jon Tester (D — Montana) introduced the idea of cutting the $25 stimulus added to unemployment checks.
Tell him what you think: http://tester.senate.gov/Contact/
Diane Feinstein was quoted as saying “We have 99 weeks of unemployment insurance now. The question becomes how long do you continue it before people just don't go back to work at all?”. Does she not understand the bill? HR 4213 would only extend the filing deadline NOT the number of weeks.
Tell her what you think: http://feinstein.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?Fu…
Nancy Pelosi has been quoted making a similar statement.
Tell her where to go: http://www.house.gov/pelosi/contact/contact.html
Full list of Dems/Independents voting NO in a test vote on hr 4213:
Evan Bayh (Ind.) http://bayh.senate.gov/contact/email/
Begich (Alaska) http://begich.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=Ema…
Feingold (Wis.) http://feingold.senate.gov/contact_opinion.html
Kohl (Wis.) http://kohl.senate.gov/contact.cfm
Landrieu (La.) http://landrieu.senate.gov/about/contact.cfm
McCaskill (Mo.) http://mccaskill.senate.gov/?p=contact
Nelson (Neb.) http://bennelson.senate.gov/contact-me.cfm
Nelson (Fla) http://billnelson.senate.gov/contact/email.cfm
Pryor (Ark.) http://pryor.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=Cont…
Webb (Va.). http://webb.senate.gov/contact.cfm
Russ Feingold (D-WI) http://feingold.senate.gov/contact_opinion.html
Everyone is now suddenly a fiscal conservative when it comes to the unemployed, after bailing out every unseemly entity this country has to offer.
Pingback posted June 17, 2010 @ 9:28 pm
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