Published on Tuesday, March 09, 2010
By Pasadena Star Staff Writer
WASHINGTON - Legislation to give additional months of unemployment benefits to people who have been out of a job for more than half a year cleared a key hurdle Tuesday that guarantees it will soon pass the Senate.
The sweeping bill also would prevent doctors from absorbing a crippling cut in Medicare payments and extends health insurance subsidies for the unemployed through December. It would add $132billion to the budget deficit over the next year and a half.
Eight Republicans voted with Democrats to defeat a GOP filibuster of the measure, setting up a final vote today. The measure illustrates the great extent to which direct help for the jobless and the poor makes up a large portion of Democrats' election-year agenda on jobs - and that it threatens to squeeze out other items on that agenda amid concerns about a budget deficit projected at a record $1.6 trillion this year.
Democrats also hope this week to separately finish work on a far smaller job-creation measure blending additional highway spending with new tax breaks for companies that hire the unemployed
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