Stimulus Talks at ‘Standstill,’ Though Compromise Still Possible

House GOP leaders say they may take a new, "scaled-back" economic stimulus bill that includes provisions to extend unemployment benefits and help unemployed workers purchase health insurance to the House floor "if talks fail to produce a House-Senate compromise," the Wall Street Journal reports. Negotiations stalled over the weekend, and as of the evening of Dec. 10, lawmakers had scheduled no "formal meetings" to resume discussion this week. The compromise legislation, proposed last week by House Ways and Means Committee Chair Bill Thomas (R-Calif.), would include at least $20 billion to extend unemployment benefits by 13 weeks and to help unemployed workers purchase health insurance, proposals backed by Democrats (Murray, Wall Street Journal, 12/11). House Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-Texas) predicted that the House would pass the bill as early as this week and "have the Senate either take it or leave it" (Norton, CongressDaily/AM, 12/11). In October, the House approved a $100 billion GOP-sponsored bill, supported by President Bush, that would increase by $3 billion funding for the Social Services Block Grant program to allow states to provide health insurance to unemployed workers and their families. It also includes a number of tax and finance provisions targeted toward businesses and consumers (Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, 10/29). Senate Democrats had proposed a different bill, which Senate Republicans blocked last month, that would have provided $14.3 billion to extend benefits for unemployed workers by 13 weeks and $12.3 billion to help unemployed workers purchase health coverage through COBRA. COBRA, the 1986 Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act, allows unemployed workers to retain health coverage under their former employers' insurance plans by paying 102% of the premiums. In addition, the legislation would have allowed states to extend Medicaid coverage to unemployed workers who do not qualify for COBRA and provided $1.4 billion to boost the federal match to states for Medicaid (Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, 11/15).

Hope for a Deal?
Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), the chief Senate GOP negotiator, said that "progress had been made" during negotiations on Dec. 7 on resolving the different proposals. Sources said that Democrats may accept tax credits "if they were tied more directly to health care premiums" (Kessler, Washington Post, 12/11). And the Republicans' compromise plan "scale[s] back" some of the tax and finance provisions "that have been unacceptable to Senate Democrats" (Wall Street Journal, 12/11). Still, the Post reports that Republicans and Democrats face a "growing sense" that "it may be more advantageous politically for the talks to fail," which would allow both parties to "point the finger of blame" at each other in the 2002 elections (Washington Post, 12/11).

Editorials
A Washington Post editorial notes that provisions to extend unemployment benefits and help unemployed workers purchase health insurance "haven't caught fire" in the debate over economic stimulus legislation and are in "danger of being dropped." The editorial adds that the bill may include "corporate and upper-bracket tax cuts," rather than benefits for low-income workers who "need the help the most," and concludes, "Better no bill at all" (Washington Post, 12/11). Meanwhile, a New York Times editorial criticizes a "wild Republican campaign to demonize" Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) for the stalled negotiations and praises provisions proposed by Democrats to help unemployed workers purchase health insurance as "good ideas ... that should be passed." The editorial concludes, "If Bush continues to be inflexible on the economic package, Daschle should switch tactics and attach the health and jobless benefits to some other bill before Congress adjourns near Christmas. It would be a travesty to ignore the real needs of the most vulnerable Americans at a time like this one" (New York Times, 12/11).