Medical Insurance To Unemployed Workers example essay topic

IT WAS A morning of extraordinary political maneuvering as the president showed up on Daschle's home turf, the Senate, to claim that there had been an accord on a stimulus plan, while Daschle staged a press conference to dispute that claim. Shortly after Bush arrived on Capitol Hill to speak to lawmakers, Daschle summoned reporters to announce that there still was no agreement on the chief obstacle: how to provide medical insurance to unemployed workers. DASCHLE: NO DEAL YET " We regret very much that our Republican colleagues, at least so far, have refused to come to the table to negotiate seriously on health and unemployment benefits in spite of the fact that millions of people are unemployed today", Daschle told reporters. "We have come more than halfway in meeting our Republican colleagues on an array of tax questions", he added. "We " re frustrated, but we " re not going to give up. We " re disappointed that we " ve not been able to achieve our goal, but we " re simply going to stay at the table for as long as it takes to get this job done, as long as our Republican colleagues will continue to talk".

I don't think their efforts at trying to pull in moderate Democrats has worked", Gephardt said. He added the House would likely pass the GOP plan later Wednesday. "Obviously they have the votes to pass that", he said. But Daschle made it clear that he will use his power as majority leader to prevent the House bill from coming to a vote in the Senate. Speaking prior to Daschle's press conference, Bush struck an entirely different tone in his comments. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 8.2 million Americans are now unemployed.

The jobless rate rose to 5.7 percent in November - its highest level since August 1995. Agreement has essentially been reached to extend unemployment benefits by 13 weeks and provide several business and individual tax cuts, including a reduction in the 27 percent personal income tax rate to 25 percent beginning Jan. 1. Both sides also support tax breaks to help New York City recover from the Sept. 11 terror attacks. The big divide remains - as it has for weeks - over medical insurance. On the medical insurance issue, GOP leaders propose a tax credit that would cover about 60 percent of the cost of insurance for the unemployed Democrats contend that the GOP approach would force jobless people to go shopping in the insurance marketplace, where they could be denied coverage for pre-existing conditions or be forced to pay high premiums.

Republicans say the tax credit would cover all unemployed people, allow greater choice and would be available up front when a worker won approval for jobless benefits. OUTMANEUVERING DASCHLE? GOP leaders think that by bargaining with Breaux and making an end run around Daschle, they can get perhaps half of the Senate Democrats they would need to pass their bill in the Senate, and hope that other Democrats will be sufficiently uncomfortable about the risks of appearing to do nothing to help the economy to support the bill. In a related development, House Republican Leader Dick Armey said Tuesday he expects Daschle to challenge Bush for the White House in the 2004 election.