The Political Bridge

The U.S. House of Representatives Approves a "Stimulus Bill for Jobs and State/Local Governments"

(This bill provides $50 billion to public works projects and $50 billion for cash-strapped state and local governments.)

 2847   RECORDED VOTE   16-Dec-2009   7:04 PM
  QUESTION:  On Concurring in Senate Amendment with an Amendment
  BILL TITLE: Making Appropriations for the Departments of Commerce and Justice, and Science, and Related Agencies for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2010, and for other purposes

	Ayes	Noes	PRES	NV
Democratic	217	38		3
Republican		174		3
Independent
TOTALS	217	212		6

---- AYES 217 ---

Abercrombie Ackerman Altmire Andrews Baca Baird Baldwin Barrow Becerra Berkley Berman Berry Bishop (GA) Bishop (NY) Blumenauer Boccieri Boswell Boucher Brady (PA) Braley (IA) Brown, Corrine Butterfield Capps Capuano Cardoza Carnahan Carney Carson (IN) Castor (FL) Chandler Chu Clarke Clay Cleaver Clyburn Cohen Conyers Cooper Costa Costello Courtney Crowley Cuellar Cummings Dahlkemper Davis (AL) Davis (CA) Davis (IL) Davis (TN) DeFazio DeGette Delahunt DeLauro Dicks Dingell Doggett Doyle Edwards (MD) Ellison Engel Eshoo Etheridge Farr Fattah Filner Frank (MA) Fudge Garamendi Giffords Gonzalez Gordon (TN) Grayson Green, Al

Green, Gene Grijalva Gutierrez Hall (NY) Halvorson Hare Harman Hastings (FL) Heinrich Higgins Hinchey Hinojosa Hirono Holden Holt Honda Hoyer Inslee Israel Jackson (IL) Jackson-Lee (TX) Johnson (GA) Kagen Kanjorski Kaptur Kennedy Kildee Kilpatrick (MI) Kilroy Kissell Klein (FL) Kucinich Langevin Larsen (WA) Larson (CT) Lee (CA) Levin Lewis (GA) Lipinski Loebsack Lofgren, Zoe Lowey Luján Lynch Maffei Maloney Markey (MA) Marshall Massa Matsui McCarthy (NY) McCollum McDermott McGovern McIntyre McMahon McNerney Meek (FL) Meeks (NY) Michaud Miller (NC) Miller, George Mollohan Moore (KS) Moore (WI) Moran (VA) Murphy (CT) Murphy (NY) Nadler (NY) Napolitano Neal (MA) Oberstar Obey

Olver Ortiz Owens Pallone Pascrell Pastor (AZ) Payne Pelosi Perlmutter Perriello Pingree (ME) Polis (CO) Price (NC) Rahall Rangel Reyes Richardson Rodriguez Ross Rothman (NJ) Roybal-Allard Ruppersberger Rush Ryan (OH) Salazar Sánchez, Linda T. Sanchez, Loretta Sarbanes Schakowsky Schauer Schiff Schwartz Scott (GA) Scott (VA) Serrano Sestak Shea-Porter Sherman Shuler Sires Skelton Slaughter Snyder Spratt Stark Stupak Sutton Tanner Thompson (CA) Thompson (MS) Tierney Titus Tonko Towns Tsongas Van Hollen Velázquez Visclosky Walz Wasserman Schultz Waters Watson Watt Waxman Weiner Welch Wexler Wilson (OH) Woolsey Wu Yarmuth

---- NOES 212 ---

Aderholt Adler (NJ) Akin Alexander Arcuri Austria Bachmann Bachus Barrett (SC) Bartlett Barton (TX) Bean Biggert Bilbray Bilirakis Bishop (UT) Blackburn Blunt Boehner Bonner Bono Mack Boozman Boren Boustany Boyd Brady (TX) Bright Broun (GA) Brown (SC) Brown-Waite, Ginny Buchanan Burgess Burton (IN) Buyer Calvert Camp Campbell Cantor Cao Capito Carter Cassidy Castle Chaffetz Childers Coble Coffman (CO) Cole Conaway Connolly (VA) Crenshaw Culberson Davis (KY) Deal (GA) Dent Diaz-Balart, L. Diaz-Balart, M. Donnelly (IN) Dreier Driehaus Duncan Edwards (TX) Ehlers Ellsworth Emerson Fallin Flake Fleming Forbes Fortenberry Foster

Foxx Franks (AZ) Frelinghuysen Gallegly Garrett (NJ) Gerlach Gingrey (GA) Gohmert Goodlatte Granger Graves Griffith Guthrie Hall (TX) Harper Hastings (WA) Heller Hensarling Herger Herseth Sandlin Hill Himes Hodes Hoekstra Hunter Inglis Issa Jenkins Johnson (IL) Johnson, Sam Jones Jordan (OH) Kind King (IA) King (NY) Kingston Kirk Kirkpatrick (AZ) Kline (MN) Kosmas Kratovil Lamborn Lance Latham LaTourette Latta Lee (NY) Lewis (CA) LoBiondo Lucas Luetkemeyer Lummis Lungren, Daniel E. Mack Manzullo Marchant Markey (CO) Matheson McCarthy (CA) McCaul McClintock McCotter McHenry McKeon McMorris Rodgers Melancon Mica Miller (FL) Miller (MI) Miller, Gary Minnick

Mitchell Moran (KS) Murphy, Patrick Murphy, Tim Myrick Neugebauer Nunes Nye Olson Paul Paulsen Pence Peters Peterson Petri Pitts Platts Poe (TX) Pomeroy Posey Price (GA) Putnam Quigley Rehberg Reichert Roe (TN) Rogers (AL) Rogers (KY) Rogers (MI) Rohrabacher Rooney Ros-Lehtinen Roskam Royce Ryan (WI) Scalise Schmidt Schock Schrader Sensenbrenner Sessions Shadegg Shimkus Shuster Simpson Smith (NE) Smith (NJ) Smith (TX) Smith (WA) Souder Space Stearns Sullivan Taylor Teague Terry Thompson (PA) Thornberry Tiahrt Tiberi Turner Upton Walden Wamp Westmoreland Whitfield Wilson (SC) Wittman Wolf Young (AK)

---- NOT VOTING 6 ---

Johnson, E. B. Linder

Murtha Radanovich

Speier Young (FL)

Bloomberg Press: Fight Looms Between House and Senate Democrats on Cutting Funds to Medicare Advantage

A fight still looms between House and Senate Democrats(regarding cutes to Medicare Advantage). The House health-care bill contains about $50 billion more in cuts to Medicare Advantage than the Senate. The House plan also would target rural areas for much of the reduction. In the Senate, where Montana’s Max Baucus and other lawmakers from rural states wield more influence, Democrats are looking to cities for savings.

To Read More Click Bloomberg Press

An Analysis of Health Insurance Premiums under the U.S. Senate's Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act

 Information below has come for a Congressional Budget Office(CBO) and Joint Committee on Taxation Report, which has been released on November 30, 2009. To read the entire report Download 11-30-Premiums

 

 

The CBO’s and JCT’S Definitions of insurance groups:

Nongroup Policies: New policies purchased from insurers individually

Small Group Market: Employer-based policies for organizations/business with 50 or fewer workers.

Large Group Market: Employer-based policies for organizations/business with more than 50 workers.

 Nongroup Policies CBO and JCT estimate that the average premium per person covered (including dependents) for new nongroup (policies would be about 10 percent to 13 percent higher in 2016 than the average premium for nongroup coverage in that same year under current law. About half of those enrollees would receive government subsidies that would reduce their costs well below the premiums that would be charged for such policies under current law.

Small Group and Large Group Markets

The legislation would have much smaller effects on premiums for employment-based coverage, which would account for about five-sixths of the total health insurance market. In the small group market, the CBO and JCT estimate that the change in the average premium per person resulting from the legislation could range from an increase of 1 percent to a reduction of 2 percent in 2016 (relative to current law).6 In the large group market the legislation would yield an average premium per person that is zero to 3 percent lower in 2016.

 

Reuters News Service: The Proposed Senate Plan for Financing Health Care Reform

…The House bill would impose a 5.4 percent surtax on individuals earning more than $500,000 a year and couples making more than $1 million. It also raises money by imposing a 2.5 percent excise tax on medical devices, by ending some tax breaks for multinational companies…and iincludes a 40% excise tax on high cost health insurance plans. Medicare payroll taxes would go up from 1.45 to 1.95 percent for individuals earning $200,000+ and for couples earning $250,000+.

Read More: Click Financing

Breaking News from the Washington Post: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to Unveil $849 Billion Compromise Health-Care Bill

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has assembled a compromise health package that would expand coverage to more than 31 million Americans at a cost of $849 billion over the next decade, a senior leadership aide said late Wednesday.

The cost of the package would be more than made up for by cuts in future Medicare spending and an array of new taxes, the aide said, reducing projected budget deficits by $127 billion no later than 2019...

To Read More:  Click Senate Health-Care Bill

AP Reporting that House Dems Trim Health Bill to $871B

WASHINGTON – House Democrats are aiming to scale back the cost of their health care bill to well below President Barack Obama's preferred price tag by giving the government a strong hand in selling insurance in competition with the private market.

On Tuesday, House Democratic leaders received a new cost estimate of $871 billion from congressional budget umpires who measured a robust version of a so-called public option for health insurance, according to a Democratic aide

The Government Accounting Office's Fall 2009 Update: The Federal Government’s Long-Term Fiscal Outlook

 Weaknesses in the economy and financial markets—and the government’s response to them—have contributed to near-term increases in federal deficits, which reached a record level in fiscal year 2009. While a lot of attention has been given to the recent fiscal deterioration, the federal government faces even larger fiscal challenges that will persist long after the return of financial stability and economic growth. GAO’s simulations continue to show escalating levels of debt that illustrate that the long-term fiscal outlook remains unsustainable. In little over 10 years, debt held by the public as a percent of GDP under our Alternative simulation is projected to exceed the historical high reached in the aftermath of World War II and grow at a steady rate thereafter...

To read the entire report click: Download GAO