Page 4 - Dock Fix News Today

good evening, everyone. im john king reporting live from the history irk cspc hall in cedar rapids, iowa. breaking political story tonight. exactly three weeks before iowa casts the first vote of the 2012 presidential campaign. iowa conservative act innist who just signed on with the newt gingrich presidential campaign is quoted just before he took that campaign job as calling gingrich rival mitt romneys religion, quote, the cult of mormon. let me read you the quote. quote, theres a na...

is "state of the union." there was a boxing match here in washington last night, but the real punches were thrown in des moines. >> lets be candid. the only reason you didnt become a career politician is you lost to tedty kennedy in 1994. >> the last thing he needs to have is not just a person who is an historian but also someone who is running for president of the united states stand up and say things that create extraordinary timult in his neighborhood. >> if you want a difference,...

Supposed stimulus in the bill expire? are they going to let the payroll tax return to its previous level? are they going to avoid the dock fix? that means doctors would stop taking medicare. theres all sorts of stuff in this legislation that democrats, if they actually believe the arguments, think are necessary to help the economy. and so they dont want the economy going down in an election year. i dont think the democrats can play chicken and let the payroll tax go back up. >> how do you see th...

Unemployment benefits, all these things that add $300 billion. republicans say they are needed for the economy. democrats say, how is that going to play out? we could have a christmas eve vote here. >> we thought it was going to be about the supercommittee, the surprise is it will be a piece by piece set of the moment. they thought they could work all of that into the big deal. it hasnt happened. you have now, the new kind of catalyst of the expiration of a payroll tax cut or expiration of unemp...

Prescription drugs -- the dock fix. >> neil: we couldnt. >> the amt. the creep in amt, theres lots of things not loaded no the budget protections. once the boomers retire, next year at 65, youll see entitlement spending, medicare and medicaid and social security grow as a bigger percentage of the federal budget. we have serious, serious problems and an administration -- i would argue we have washington thats not willing to deal with them. >> neil: senator, always good seeing you. >> pleasure. >>...

Through june 2nd. cobra has been extended until may 31st. this is a subsidy to help people pay the premiums, when you lose the job and need to get health insurance benefits. thats what cobra is. that was extended until may 31st. theres a measure in here called the dock fix. allows doctors to be paid at the prior levels from medicare. they were going to see a 20% decline. that fixes all of this. pushing the ball forward. it still pushes the ball forward so there will be another discussion beginni...

For it. >> thats exactly right. you know, this is a huge problem. and the fed chairman talked about arithmetic and the fact that it doesnt work here. let me give you a reason why. were taxing about 18.5% of the economy right now -- >> no, were not. >> and we are, and then were spending 25% of the economy. now, your family budget, tell me, does that work or doesnt it work? michaels exactly right that the budgets are unusually large this year. the budget deficit is. but its not much different goin...

As a result nernl? could a year from now, douse that any of the challenges that the republican are using, whether it is state by state or through the federal courts, is it vulnerable? >> i was a brand new hill aide in 1989 when that was reappealed. it was catastrophic health insurance, mostly for elderly. it was the elderly who wanted it repeal because it taxed them for a benefit that wept to the elderly and of course they didnt like that. i really dont see that happening at all. i think the poi...

Fiscal context, right? so sja gupta has earlier on talked about the dock fix. this is a separate issue not in the bill but it is a big issue that shape how much well spend over health care over time. similarly, weve put a lot of revenue issues if you are down the line and later in this bill that may or may not happen. that will happen after the president leaves office. thats the tricky question. a lot of the pain in this is coming later. the spinach is coming later. the good stuff, thats coming ...

Medicare dock fix. they are keeping up the momentum going into 2016. this is bob cusack. you are in washington d.c. we are talking about the flurry of bills and a new eran of compromise. does it feel different? is there a different vibe on capitol hill? >> there is a different vibe jenna. if you look at the last congress it was worst ever. and now the republicans own the whole thing and mitch mcconnell has to preserve the fragile majority and they are putting up points on the board. john boehner...