Dems Pursuing Second Stimulus

Meredith Jessup | October 09, 2009 2:22 PM

As the unemployment numbers continue to climb and the economic outlook remains largely unchanged, Democrats on Capitol Hill are working on a growing list of "relief efforts" to help alleviate the pressures of the current recession.

Though Dems might be looking at a second stimulus bill (while most of the money from the first one has yet to be spent), they are certainly NOT looking for any way to pay for it:

"We have to do something for the unemployed, politically and economically," said Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., chairman of the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee.

The House already has voted to extend unemployment benefits an additional 13 weeks for laid off workers in the 27 states where the jobless rate is 8.5 percent or above. Senate Democrats reached a deal Thursday to extend the benefits an additional 14 weeks in every state. Both proposals are paid for by extending a federal unemployment tax.

Also on the table: extending subsidies for laid-off workers to help them keep the health insurance their former employers provided, known as COBRA. The current program, which covers workers laid off through the end of the year, costs nearly $25 billion.

Congressional leaders haven't settled on the length of an extension, or how to pay for it.

Several bills would issue extra payments to the more than 50 million Social Security recipients, to make up for the lack of a cost-of-living increase next year. One bill would set the one-time payments at $250, matching the amount paid to Social Security recipients and railroad retirees as part of the stimulus package enacted in February.

The payments would cost about $14 billion and would be paid for by applying the Social Security payroll tax to incomes between $250,000 and $359,000 in 2010. Currently, payroll taxes apply only to the first $106,800 of a worker's income.