Republicans look to privatize Medicare

(And this will include another Democrat capitulation, I'm certain.--jef)

GOP conference chairman: Medicare & Social Security is 'a cruel Ponzi scheme'
By Sahil Kapur
Friday, January 28th, 2011

WASHINGTON – House Republicans would support a plan to privatize Medicare in their annual budget, a member of the GOP leadership said.

Texas Rep. Jeb Hensarling, the House Republican Conference Chairman and second-ranked GOP member of the budget committee, made the revelation during a panel discussion, according to the National Journal.

"Unless you deal with Medicare, unless you go into Medicaid, unless you deal with Social Security for future generations—programs that were a great comfort to my grandparents and parents are morphing into a cruel Ponzi scheme for my 8-year-old daughter and my 7-year-old son," Hensarling said.

Social Security and Medicare are self-financed retirement security programs that taxpayers are required to pay into throughout their working lives.

The to-be-proposed GOP budget measure closely mirrors a provision in the high-profile "roadmap" put forth by budget committee chairman Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), which would turn Medicare into a program of vouchers whose value gradually diminishes over time, and largely privatize Social Security.

"You can’t get there from here without those kinds of reforms," Hensarling said, "so I expect it to be in the budget, I hope it’ll be in the budget, and I would certainly support it."

A Gallup poll released Wednesday found that 61 percent of the public opposes cutting Medicare, as opposed to just 38 percent in favor.

After regaining control of the House this month, top Republicans championed Ryan's "roadmap," which would end Social Security and Medicare in their present forms and eventually turn them over to the private sector.

Democratic leaders shot back with a forceful posture on the popular safety-net programs.

“Republicans are trying to carry out their plan to end Social Security and Medicare," said Jon Summers, spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV). "In public, Republicans are trying to distance themselves from this extreme plan because they know hard-working Americans don’t want to see Social Security and Medicare ended. But they should stop trying to hide the ball, and just come out and say what has become perfectly clear: that ending Social Security and Medicare is now the official position of the Republican Party."

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY), the third-ranking Democrat in the chamber, also chimed in.

"Anyone who doesn't think privatization will mean severe cuts to Medicare benefits, I have a bridge I'd like to sell them," he said, according to The Associated Press. "Privatization will make the cuts previously proposed by either party look tame."

Senate leaders close to pact on filibuster reform

From Ted Barrett, CNN, January 24, 2011

Washington (CNN) -- Top Democratic and Republican senators, negotiating proposed reforms of the use of filibusters and other legislative stalling tactics, are close to an agreement on modest changes to curb the practices but not eliminate them altogether, two Senate aides said.

Despite increased public attention to the often-controversial procedures, supporters of reform don't appear to have enough bipartisan support to force sweeping changes, the aides said. Much of the opposition to the changes comes from senior senators who have seen party control of the Senate switch several times and are wary about giving up the considerable rights available to the minority.

Instead, Senate negotiators -- led by Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-New York, and Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tennessee -- are considering at least three smaller changes aimed at preventing individual senators from clogging up the Senate's legislative pipeline.

Under the emerging deal, senators would still be able to put a "hold" on nominations and legislation -- and therefore prevent quick votes on them -- but instead of remaining anonymous for several days as current rules allow, the name of a senator who employs a hold would be made public right away. Supporters of this reform believe that senators will be less likely to drag out a dispute if they need to defend it publicly.

In an effort to reduce the Senate's workload, senators also are considering scaling back the large number of presidential appointees who need their confirmation. Supporters believe that reducing the number of typically noncontroversial nominees will streamline the Senate's calendar and provide fewer opportunities for holds and filibusters.

Negotiators are also considering, one of the aides said, eliminating a senator's ability to demand that entire bills be read aloud on the Senate floor, another stalling tactic that's occasionally employed, to the distress of the vocal cords of Senate clerks.

Talks about reforming the Senate rules came about after a group of newer senators, frustrated by the slow pace of legislative action on the floor, proposed major changes to the filibuster -- including when they could be used and reducing the 60-vote threshold required to break one.

Schumer and Alexander plan to present their proposals to their respective caucuses Tuesday. If there is a general agreement in both parties, a vote on the changes could happen in the next few days.

Job Creation Tax Credit For Hiring The Unemployed May Be Killed

Huffington Post | Nathaniel Cahners Hindman | 07-15-10

One of the few job creation bills that squirmed through the halls of Congress earlier this year is back on the chopping block.

The HIRE Act of 2010 (Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment), signed into law last March, is designed to boost the hiring of long-term unemployed workers who in June made up a record 46 percent of unemployed people in the US.

The program currently exempts employers from payroll takes on new workers who've been unemployed for at least 60 days. Normally, an employer must pay 6.2 percent payroll taxes on the wages paid to a new hire. If the newly hired employee stays for at least a year, companies get an additional $1,000 tax credit.

As of now, December 31st, 2010 is the last date that new hires can trigger the tax credit for firms, but the White House is pushing to extend the current deadline.

"The immediate and targeted nature of this tax cut makes it easy to understand why this program is showing early signs of success," said Senator Chuck Schumer (D-New York), who co-wrote the bill with Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), told The New York Daily News. "We are planning to work to extend it for another six months."

Since the president's mention of the program in his State of the Union address "there's been little further marketing, which Treasury is now trying to correct," writes the Wall Street Journal:

"The Obama administration, stymied by a deficit-wary Congress reluctant to replenish stimulus spending, hopes to combat unemployment by using existing programs that have not been fully implemented."
A report released by the Treasury Department on Monday examines whether the bill is working to spur job creation. Officials highlight the 4.5 million long-term unemployed workers hired from February to May 2010. Their employers are eligible for $5.1 billion in 2010 tax relief, a subsidy that will cost the government $13 billion by 2019, according to estimates by the Joint Committee on Taxation.

Even though, as New York Times Economix blog's Catherine Rampell points out, "it's a relatively small amount of money at stake, when you consider the overall costs of taking on another employee" -- an unemployed worker hired at $50,000 a year who is retained by an employer for a year will save the employer $4,100 in annual tax relief -- "it may be just the incentive that employers on the fence about expanding may need."

But to gain congressional approval for an extension, the White House will first have to convince lawmakers that the tax exemptions are adequate motivation for employers to add jobs. Critics say the tax credit has had little effect, and is being claimed mostly by companies already in expansion mode that would have hired regardless of the tax credit. Further, government officials say anecdotal evidence suggests companies are unaware the incentive even exists.

The Congressional Budget Office predicts the bill could create around 300,000 additional jobs by the end of the year, the Atlantic notes, adding "it's a tough count, since many employers who claim the credit would have hired anyway."