The Hill: Senate leaders will return next week to plot health conference

Posted by Kendall Harmon

The State of the Union typically takes place on the third Tuesday of January, which would be Jan. 19.

But it’s unclear whether negotiators will be able to smooth out significant disagreements in such a short time.

Congress traditionally does not reconvene until the week of the president’s address but leaders may bring their colleagues back to work early to get a jumpstart on remaining legislative work before election-year politics begins to intervene....

[Max] Baucus said differences over how to pay for new federal health insurance subsidies and limits on abortion coverage are two of the biggest obstacles.

The House legislation would pay for a large portion of its benefits by imposing a tax surcharge on individuals who earn more than $500,000 and families earning over $1 million.

The Senate bill would instead tax high-cost insurance plans and raise the Medicare payroll tax on individuals earning over $200,000 and families earning more than $250,000.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Health & Medicine • --The 2009 American Health Care Reform Debate • * Economics, Politics • Politics in General • Senate

2 Comments
Posted December 22, 2009 at 5:46 pm [Printer Friendly] [Print w/ comments]



1. libraryjim wrote:

Congress traditionally does not reconvene until the week of the president’s address but leaders may bring their colleagues back to work early to get a jumpstart on bullying and bribing them into voting their way on remaining legislative work.

There, that’s more accurate.

Jim Elliott

December 22, 6:15 pm | [comment link]
2. Daniel wrote:

The word “plot” in the headline seems so apt.

December 23, 12:04 pm | [comment link]
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