The Senate and the House are NOT in session. The Senate will meet for a series of pro forma sessions until it returns for legislative business on Tuesday, November 13th. The first Senate pro forma session is scheduled for tomorrow at 9:30 AM.
The House is still scheduled on their calendar to return for one week Oct. 1st - 5th. Euphemistically, the House calls its scheduled time in Washington as "D.C. Work" and their time not in Washington as "Constituent Work." And "Constituent Work" includes their time campaigning for election. And the American Taxpayers pays for Congress when they are "not" in session. This was no problem for our forefathers because they understood they were servants and statesmen and didn't charge the citizens "big bucks" in terms of pay, benefits, allowances and retirement.
Last Friday after midnight, the Senate voted 62-30 to pass H.J. Res. 117, the House-passed continuing resolution (CR) to fund the government through March. The Senate voted down a bill from Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) which would have placed conditions on certain foreign aid.
Also that night, the Senate voted 90-1to pass S.J. Res. 41 expressing the sense of the Senate on preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon and voted 84-7 to invoke cloture on the motion to proceed to S. 3525, a bill concerning sportsmen and hunting, setting up further action when the Senate returns in November.
As reported on Friday, the House passed HR 3409 (233 - 175) which limits the authority of the Secretary of the Interior to issue regulations before December 31, 2013, under the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977. This means that the House also voted to stop the "War on Coal."
Medical Device Makers Say New Obamacare Tax Will "Send Jobs Overseas And Stop Them From Expanding In The U.S.":
USA Today reports, “Even as the new health care law adds millions of insured customers to the paying pool, medical device manufacturers say a tax on their product could cost them billions. The tax came as the government looked for ways to fund the new law. . . . [T]he government looked to higher-earning citizens -- those who make more than $200,000 a year -- to also contribute. In industry, the government focused on the $130 billion-a-year medical device manufacturing industry.”
“But,” USA Today writes, “the manufacturers say the tax will force money away from research, send jobs overseas and stop them from expanding in the U.S. . . . Medical device manufacturing includes everything from tongue depressors to hip replacements to heart stents. . . . Steve Ubl, CEO of AdvaMed, the trade organization that represents the industry, said the tax would force companies to cut 43,000 jobs and will cost the industry $30 billion in the next 10 years. ‘It’s very concerning to us,’ he said. ‘It’s a tax on revenue, and it translates to a very deep cut in the bottom line.’ Ubl said the companies won’t look for more efficient products, contrary to what advocates of the law say. Instead, they’ll cut jobs and reduce investment in research and development. Or, he said, they’ll pass the tax on to their customers.
“Steve Ferguson, chairman of Cook Group, said the tax has caused the company to stop plans on a $15 million factory that would employ 300 people -- and that four more planned after that have also been stopped. The company would be paying more than 50% in taxes, he said, and it would push innovation to ‘foreign shores.’”
The problems with the medical device tax in Democrat’s unpopular health care law was something Republicans warned about from the very beginning and many reports warned of when the bill passed.
Today’s new warning about one of the taxes in the health care law comes on the heels of a report last week about another one aimed squarely at the middle class. As the AP put it, “Nearly 6 million Americans - significantly more than first estimated- will face a tax penalty under President Barack Obama’s health overhaul for not getting insurance, congressional analysts said Wednesday. Most would be in the middle class.”Key
Economic Polling Data Compliments of Public Notice:
According to Gallup, 54% of adults (62% of Independents) believe the government is trying to do too many things that should be left to individuals and businesses. 39% (29% of Independents) say the government should do more to solve the nation's problems.
According to Associated Press/GfK, 35% of adults say that national economy is better off than it was four years ago. 19% say it is the same and 46% say it is worse. According to CBS/New York Times, 35% of adults say the U.S. is better than it was four years ago; 27% say it is the same; and 37% say it is worse.
Congress: Average approval for early August to mid-September was 13.8% according to the RealClearPolitics average. Average disapproval was 79.6%.
Right Track/Wrong Track: According to the RealClearPolitics average, which covered early to mid-September, 38.5% think the country is headed in the right direction while 55.3% think it is headed in the wrong direction.
According to CBS/New York Times, 32% of adults think the next generation will be better off than the current only. 42% think it will be worse off and 18% think it will be in the same situation.
According to Pew, 25% of adults think the economy is recovering; 30% say it isn’t recovering yet, but will soon and 43% say it will be a long time before it recovers.
Tags: Obamacare, Tax, jobs overseas, polling, Congress, the economy To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
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