House Passes Payroll Tax Bill Packed With Poison Pills

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/13/house-passes-payroll-tax-bill_n_1147021.html

A GOP plan to pay for a payroll tax cut by docking federal workers and cutting Medicare passed the House Tuesday, but appeared headed for quick failure in the Senate as both parties jockeyed for political advantage.

The Republican-controlled House of Representatives voted 234 to 193 for the bill, in spite of a White House promise to veto it and a warning from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) that it would never pass in his chamber.

The plan would pay for the one-year, 2 percent payroll tax cut by means-testing Medicare so that recipients making $85,000 and above have to pay higher premiums -- effectively raising $31 billion. Another $62 billion would come from freezing federal pay for a year and making federal retirees pay more for health care. It would raise yet another $38 billion by hiking fees on banks doing business with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Besides the controversial methods of paying for the bill, it would also stop clean air regulations estimated to save 20,000 lives, circumvent an environmental review of the Canada-to-Texas Keystone XL oil pipeline, slash emergency unemployment benefits from 73 weeks to 33 weeks, and allow states to force the jobless to prove they're not on drugs in order to get unemployment benefits.