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- Oct 12, 2005
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It's a start (who knows how long it will last). Thanks to everyone who contacted your legislators...
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/12/09/CONGRESS.TMP&feed=rss.news
House OKs tax cuts as curtain closes
Lawmakers block 5% cut in Medicare payments to doctors
Andrew Taylor, Associated Press
Saturday, December 9, 2006
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(12-09) 04:00 PST Washington -- Rejected by voters and limping offstage, the Republican-led House of Representatives passed a sweeping bill Friday reviving expired tax breaks and preventing doctors from taking a big cut in Medicare payments.
But they dumped an unfinished budget on the Democrats about to take power.
Working into the night, the chamber also passed a package of trade bills and debated a measure to keep the government running into February. Under a complicated procedural pirouette, the tax and trade legislation was to be bundled together and sent to the Senate, where a handful of Republicans threatened delay.
A weekend Senate session loomed as Republican budget hawks bridled at the measure's cost and textile state senators objected to trade provisions benefiting Vietnam, Haiti and Andean nations, among others.
The 367-45 vote on the tax bill reflected widespread bipartisan support for extending expired tax breaks, including a research and development tax credit for businesses, a tax deduction on college tuition, a tax credit for hiring welfare recipients and others, and tax credits for alternative energy producers and purchases of solar energy equipment by homeowners and businesses.
All told, the tax cuts would cost $38 billion over five years.
Also driving the huge bill forward was an attempt to prevent a 5 percent cut in Medicare payments to doctors scheduled to take effect Jan. 1. But the GOP-crafted solution to the problem was criticized as an accounting gimmick that would only postpone the problem and increase the cost of fixing it.
Lawmakers faced a midnight deadline to send President Bush a bill to keep domestic federal agencies from shutting down. With work unfinished on nine of 11 spending bills, a stopgap funding bill would put 13 Cabinet departments on autopilot through Feb. 15, frozen at or slightly below current levels.
Democrats face difficult choices and weeks of work on the leftover budget mess, which totals $463 billion and must be passed at Bush's strict budget limits.
"They are leaving us with a tremendous mess," Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said. "We have alternatives, none of which are very good."
As is often the case at the end of the session, congressional leaders tried to lump popular items -- extending the expired or expiring tax breaks -- with other more contentious measures.
The trade portion establishes permanent normal trade relations with Vietnam, which is generally supported, with the extension of trade benefits for sub-Saharan Africa, Haiti and Andean nations. The Haiti provisions, in particular, raised red flags with lawmakers trying to protect home-state textile industries.
On Thursday, eight GOP senators from North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama and Kentucky wrote congressional leaders saying that 100,000 textile jobs in their region already have been lost due to trade agreements and that they would oppose "as forcefully as possible" the Haiti measure.
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Legislators' raise tied to minimum wage hike
Among the many last-minute legislative maneuvers Friday, Democrats made good on a promise to block an automatic congressional pay raise until the minimum wage is increased.
Under pressure from future House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, and Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., GOP leaders added language to a funding bill postponing the pay raise slated for Jan. 1 until Feb. 16. Now, if the pay raise goes into effect Feb. 16, members would lose some $320 of their anticipated $2,800 annual increase. Currently, rank-and-file members earn $165,200.
Source: Associated Press
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/12/09/CONGRESS.TMP&feed=rss.news
House OKs tax cuts as curtain closes
Lawmakers block 5% cut in Medicare payments to doctors
Andrew Taylor, Associated Press
Saturday, December 9, 2006
Printable Version
Email This Article
(12-09) 04:00 PST Washington -- Rejected by voters and limping offstage, the Republican-led House of Representatives passed a sweeping bill Friday reviving expired tax breaks and preventing doctors from taking a big cut in Medicare payments.
But they dumped an unfinished budget on the Democrats about to take power.
Working into the night, the chamber also passed a package of trade bills and debated a measure to keep the government running into February. Under a complicated procedural pirouette, the tax and trade legislation was to be bundled together and sent to the Senate, where a handful of Republicans threatened delay.
A weekend Senate session loomed as Republican budget hawks bridled at the measure's cost and textile state senators objected to trade provisions benefiting Vietnam, Haiti and Andean nations, among others.
The 367-45 vote on the tax bill reflected widespread bipartisan support for extending expired tax breaks, including a research and development tax credit for businesses, a tax deduction on college tuition, a tax credit for hiring welfare recipients and others, and tax credits for alternative energy producers and purchases of solar energy equipment by homeowners and businesses.
All told, the tax cuts would cost $38 billion over five years.
Also driving the huge bill forward was an attempt to prevent a 5 percent cut in Medicare payments to doctors scheduled to take effect Jan. 1. But the GOP-crafted solution to the problem was criticized as an accounting gimmick that would only postpone the problem and increase the cost of fixing it.
Lawmakers faced a midnight deadline to send President Bush a bill to keep domestic federal agencies from shutting down. With work unfinished on nine of 11 spending bills, a stopgap funding bill would put 13 Cabinet departments on autopilot through Feb. 15, frozen at or slightly below current levels.
Democrats face difficult choices and weeks of work on the leftover budget mess, which totals $463 billion and must be passed at Bush's strict budget limits.
"They are leaving us with a tremendous mess," Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said. "We have alternatives, none of which are very good."
As is often the case at the end of the session, congressional leaders tried to lump popular items -- extending the expired or expiring tax breaks -- with other more contentious measures.
The trade portion establishes permanent normal trade relations with Vietnam, which is generally supported, with the extension of trade benefits for sub-Saharan Africa, Haiti and Andean nations. The Haiti provisions, in particular, raised red flags with lawmakers trying to protect home-state textile industries.
On Thursday, eight GOP senators from North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama and Kentucky wrote congressional leaders saying that 100,000 textile jobs in their region already have been lost due to trade agreements and that they would oppose "as forcefully as possible" the Haiti measure.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Legislators' raise tied to minimum wage hike
Among the many last-minute legislative maneuvers Friday, Democrats made good on a promise to block an automatic congressional pay raise until the minimum wage is increased.
Under pressure from future House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, and Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., GOP leaders added language to a funding bill postponing the pay raise slated for Jan. 1 until Feb. 16. Now, if the pay raise goes into effect Feb. 16, members would lose some $320 of their anticipated $2,800 annual increase. Currently, rank-and-file members earn $165,200.
Source: Associated Press
