Posts Tagged ‘congress’
Obama delays request for $1.2T debt limit
President Barack Obama is delaying a request for another $1.2 trillion increase in the nation’s debt limit at the request of congressional leaders, because of a technicality. On Friday the White House was ready to ask for the increase, because the government is within $100 billion of exhausting its current borrowing authority.
Analyst says ditch the payroll tax cut, bring back stimulus credit
As congress bickers over whether or not to extend the payroll tax cut, a prominent budget analyst is urging Washington to scrap the plan altogether and return to the stimulus-era credit that the payroll tax cut replaced. Roberton Williams, a senior fellow with the Tax Policy Center, told lawmakers this week, to revive the so-called Making Work Pay tax credit in lieu of continuing the payroll provision.
In the 2009 stimulus, this was the tax benefit for working class families. At the end of 2010, it expired and wasn’t extended by Congress. Instead they voted for a 2% reduction in the payroll tax. Now that this payroll tax is due to expire, Williams said Congress should seize the opportunity to reverse course and bring back Making Work Pay, as the credit is more valuable for the working poor.
Voters Believe Congress Way Overpaid
There are members in Congress that actually believe that they are underpaid, at $174,000 a year, while their constituents beg to differ. The Hill recently did a poll that showed 67% of the voters think that in fact, lawmakers are overpaid.
And only 1% believe members of Congress should receive pay raises, and 24% say that the pay should remain unchanged. As for the area of compensation, 695 of the voters stated congressional pensions should be eliminated, and only 15% say Congress should work fewer days, and 16% say they work the right amount of days.
White House Rushes to Fix Glitch in Healthcare Law
There’s a major glitch in the Affordable Healthcare Act, which Congress passed last year, and it has the Administration scrambling to sneak a fix into the package without going through Congress, according to an opinion piece in The Wall Street Journal. The problem is about “premium assistance”, which gives tax credits and subsidies to households that buy insurance through new health insurances exchanges, Jonathan H. Adler and Michael F. Cannon write in the Op-Ed.
Doctors group supports fight on drug shortages
The AMA threw its support behind government efforts to ensure the supply of lifesaving medicines but stopped short of recommending financial penalties against drug companies. This doctors’ lobby group voted on Monday to back U.S. legislation to create an advance warning system of impending shortages that has been stuck in Congress.
The resolution, which has stated that this is a national public health emergency, was a top agenda item at an AMA meeting in New Orleans. And there is even a worsening shortage in medicines used in chemotherapy, among other drugs, has forced doctors to delay treatment or use second-best alternatives.
