Capps Blasts GOP ‘Brinksmanship’
House Republicans Reject Extension of Payroll Tax Break
Congressmember Lois Capps blasted her Republican colleagues for engaging in “partisan posturing and brinksmanship” Tuesday after they effectively voted against a stop-gap bill that would provide extended unemployment benefits, increase Medicare payments to participating doctors, and maintain a payroll tax break now benefiting 160 million citizens. Without this bill, those 160 million (17 million of whom live in California) will see their tax bills increase by $1,000 the first pay period of the new year. According to Capps’s spokesperson, Ashley Schapitl, that translates to $21 billion a year in California alone. In addition, Schapitl said today’s vote means 350,000 unemployed Californians will see their unemployment benefits cut off.
Currently, the federal government underwrites unemployment payments between the 26th and 99th weeks of unemployment. With Tuesday’s vote, those supplemental payments by the federal government will cease and those out of work can count on payments only during the first 26 weeks, when the State of California picks up the tab. In addition, the vote will also allow a 27-percent cut to doctors contracting to provide medical services to Medicare recipients. Capps, throughout her career, has pushed to improve Medicare payment rates as Central Coast doctors, in ever increasing numbers, have concluded they can no longer afford to participate.
All but seven House Republicans voted in favor of the measure, which effectively rejected a Senate bill approved this Saturday by a vote of 89-10 to continue unemployment benefits and the payroll tax break for an additional two months. Despite strong support from Senate Republicans, House Republicans argued that two months was not long enough and insisted that any deal last at least one year. But the two-month package was embraced only after negotiations for a longer term deal broke down between Republicans and Democrats. The bill voted for by House Republicans calls on the Senate leadership to meet in conference committee to reconcile their differences in the 11 days remaining in the legislative calendar. Senate Democrats and Republicans have expressed impatience with this idea; Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid stated no such negotiations would commence without passage of the two-month measure.
