Senators want seniors to get rebate checks
WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Democrats will move to add to a $150 billion economic stimulus package rebates for senior citizens living off Social Security and an extension of unemployment benefits, senior aides said Monday.
The move sets up a clash with the White House and House leaders who are pushing a narrower package.
As the House planned a vote Tuesday on a plan that would speed rebates of up to $600 to most income earners — more for couples and families with children — the Senate was planning to draft its own measure with the add-ons, said senior Senate aides in both parties, speaking on condition of anonymity because the package is not yet final.
The move was in defiance of admonitions from the Bush administration not to risk derailing the deal with changes, and it threatened to slow what was shaping up as an extraordinarily rapid trip through Congress for the stimulus measure.
Adding rebates for senior citizens living solely off Social Security checks — who are ineligible under the plan hatched by House leaders and the White House — would likely mean doling out smaller rebates overall, shrinking the size of the payments from $600 to $500, according to a senior Senate aide.
President Bush planned to use his State of the Union address on Monday night to call on Congress to move quickly on the agreement, the White House said.
Bush will tell Congress, and specifically the Senate, not to delay or derail this agreement, said Dana Perino, the White House spokeswoman.
Still, pressure from the elderly and labor unions — both politically potent forces — is spurring senators from both parties to call for the extras.
The House plan leaves out some 20 million seniors, according to the AARP.
found here.
Nedra Elliott says:
January 28th, 2008 at 9:12 pm
Like everything else the seniors always have to pay. It seems when you get old people want to make you pay, like paying on part of your Social Security just when you make over 32,000 dollars. We worked all our likes and are trying to live alittle better after raising our children but it seems the government thinks we should do without things and have to go back to work to get anything new, and go on a vacation once a year.I can see it if you make over 100,000 a year but when you served in the military and retired and went back to work then when you retire again you have to pay on your social security and never get a break.