Permanent Medicare 'doc fix' possible in payroll tax bill
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The Democrats have a relatively simple idea for paying for this fix basically forever. Their plan is to pay for a full repeal of it with the more than half a trillion dollars in savings from the Iraq and Afghanistan drawdowns. Up until now Republicans have been insisting that was nothing but an accounting gimmick and not real money. They would much prefer to pay for the fix by enacting deep cuts in other health care spending, notably hacking away at the Affordable Care Act.
But they've taken some heat over that from providers over the intransigence on this one. In addition to that pressure, it is possible that it's dawned on them that picking these fights over proposals that actually help people is making them less popular generally. At any rate, they seem to be coming around to the Democrats' idea.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/01/26/1058754/-Permanent-Medicare-doc-fix-possible-in-payroll-tax%C2%A0bill?via=blog_1