From the NYT:
After fighting until the very final hour over how to pay for parts of a $150 billion plan that would also extend unemployment benefits and prevent a pay cut for doctors who accept Medicare, leaders of both parties put together a bill that the majority of the committee could support.
. . . 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.
After fighting until the very final hour over how to pay for parts of a $150 billion plan that would also extend unemployment benefits and prevent a pay cut for doctors who accept Medicare, leaders of both parties put together a bill that the majority of the committee could support.
. . . 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.”
More detail about the agreement here.
From Wonkbook, questions about whether the payroll tax cut will actually stimulate the economy:
Since these measures were all in place last year, economists say, they won’t actually jolt the U.S. economy any further, but they will avoid additional drag. Mark Zandi of Moody’s Analytics has estimated that failing to reach a deal would’ve slowed the economy down by about 0.9 percentage points. (By contrast, President Obama’s proposed $447 billion American Jobs would’ve injected additional money into the economy, but that’s not on the table.)
More detail about the agreement here.
From Wonkbook, questions about whether the payroll tax cut will actually stimulate the economy:
Since these measures were all in place last year, economists say, they won’t actually jolt the U.S. economy any further, but they will avoid additional drag. Mark Zandi of Moody’s Analytics has estimated that failing to reach a deal would’ve slowed the economy down by about 0.9 percentage points. (By contrast, President Obama’s proposed $447 billion American Jobs would’ve injected additional money into the economy, but that’s not on the table.)
