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- Feb 12, 2007
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The Senate Dems rejected an amendment which would have paid for the extension of unemployment benefits:
The cuts were offered by Coburn, an Oklahoma Republican, as the way to pay for the $60 billion in new unemployment insurance spending authorized by the provision of the tax deal passed later in the day by the Senate to extend the current tax rates for two years.
Coburn later was one of four Republicans who voted against the tax deal, which passed the Senate 81 to 19.
The actual amount that would have been saved by ending unemployment benefits to millionaires about $100 million over five years according to Coburns staff was small in the context of the federal budget, but nonetheless symbolic.
As many as 2,840 households that reported income of $1 million or more on their tax returns were paid a total of $18.6 million in unemployment benefits in 2008, according to the U.S. Internal Revenue Service, read a document prepared by Coburn staff, citing a report by Bloomberg News in October. This included more than 800 earning over $2 million and 17 with incomes exceeding $10 million. In all, multimillionaires were paid $5.2 million in jobless benefits.
This amendment would stop payments to individuals with assets of $1 million or more and those earning at least $1 million.
Other cuts offered by Coburn included 24 different ideas included in the report released this month by President Obamas deficit commission. Among them:
* a 15 percent cut in the budgets for the White House and congressional offices, saving $3.8 billion over five years
* a three-year pay freeze for members of Congress, saving $6 million over five years
* a 10 percent reduction of the federal workforce, saving $13.2 billion over five years
* a 20 percent reduction in the federal motor vehicle fleet, saving $1.5 billion over five years
* a 10 percent reduction in voluntary additional payments to the United Nations, saving $1.5 billion over five years
* a 15 percent reduction in Defense Department procurement, saving $61.4 billion over five years
Senate Democrats reject elimination of unemployment benefits for millionaires | The Daily Caller - Breaking News, Opinion, Research, and Entertainment
All of the above cuts are quite sensible - and yet the Dems in the Senate cannot support doing the right thing and paying for the UI benefit.
The cuts were offered by Coburn, an Oklahoma Republican, as the way to pay for the $60 billion in new unemployment insurance spending authorized by the provision of the tax deal passed later in the day by the Senate to extend the current tax rates for two years.
Coburn later was one of four Republicans who voted against the tax deal, which passed the Senate 81 to 19.
The actual amount that would have been saved by ending unemployment benefits to millionaires about $100 million over five years according to Coburns staff was small in the context of the federal budget, but nonetheless symbolic.
As many as 2,840 households that reported income of $1 million or more on their tax returns were paid a total of $18.6 million in unemployment benefits in 2008, according to the U.S. Internal Revenue Service, read a document prepared by Coburn staff, citing a report by Bloomberg News in October. This included more than 800 earning over $2 million and 17 with incomes exceeding $10 million. In all, multimillionaires were paid $5.2 million in jobless benefits.
This amendment would stop payments to individuals with assets of $1 million or more and those earning at least $1 million.
Other cuts offered by Coburn included 24 different ideas included in the report released this month by President Obamas deficit commission. Among them:
* a 15 percent cut in the budgets for the White House and congressional offices, saving $3.8 billion over five years
* a three-year pay freeze for members of Congress, saving $6 million over five years
* a 10 percent reduction of the federal workforce, saving $13.2 billion over five years
* a 20 percent reduction in the federal motor vehicle fleet, saving $1.5 billion over five years
* a 10 percent reduction in voluntary additional payments to the United Nations, saving $1.5 billion over five years
* a 15 percent reduction in Defense Department procurement, saving $61.4 billion over five years
Senate Democrats reject elimination of unemployment benefits for millionaires | The Daily Caller - Breaking News, Opinion, Research, and Entertainment
All of the above cuts are quite sensible - and yet the Dems in the Senate cannot support doing the right thing and paying for the UI benefit.