>From AARP Here are the budget highlights:
TAX CUTS Obama would make the stimulus package’s temporary tax cutâ€"up to $800 for working familiesâ€"permanent. The money will offset payroll taxes on the first $6,450 in income. About 95 percent of workers would benefit. The budget document describes it as just the beginning of promised middle-class tax relief. TAX HIKES Obama would raise taxes for those making over $250,000 and essentially retain the 2001 and 2003 middle-class tax cuts for those making less. He proposes raising the current 33 percent and 35 percent tax rates for the 2.6 million richest Americans to 36 percent and 39.6 percent. For those high-income families who itemize their deductions, he proposes capping deductionsâ€"including those for mortgage interest, charitable giving and investment expenseâ€"at 28 percent of gross income. He would halt the scheduled repeal of the estate tax and impose a 45 percent tax on a married couple’s estate over $7 million. HEALTH CARE The Obama budget sets aside a $634 billion down payment to transform the nation’s health care system. He leaves details of the reforms to Congress and future negotiations. But he would finance it in part by imposing higher taxes on richer Americans; by forcing the private Medicare Advantage insurance companies to compete for contracts; by charging a higher premium for high-income participants in the Medicare drug program; and by reducing Medicaid rebates to drugmakers. The plan also provides an added $340 million as incentives for doctors, nurses and dentists working in underserved regions of the country. CANCER RESEARCH Obama would raise funding levels for the National Institutes of Health for cancer research, adding $6 billion as part of a plan to double cancer research. The money will go toward developing diagnostics and treatments. SOCIAL SECURITY Obama would increase Social Security funding by 10 percentâ€"up $1.1 billion to $11.6 billionâ€"to expedite approval of benefits, particularly for people with disabilities. Social Security officials wade through 4.2 million applications for benefits each year from retirees, survivors and Medicare patients and another 2.6 million disability claims. There is currently a more than two-year backlog for disability claims. VETERANS HEALTH CARE The Veterans Affairs Department would get a $25 billion increase over the next five years and much of it would go toward health care. The extra money would allow another 5.5 million veterans to get care. Non-disabled veterans with modest incomes, for instance, will be allowed into the VA health care system for the first time in more than six years. NUTRITION Obama would set up a pilot program to help get more poor older Americans involved in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. The budget says older Americans are among the “most vulnerable and hardest-to-reach†people who are eligible for the aid. Obama also would increase funding for food banks and other feeding programs that help the poor, including the SNAP program. FOOD SAFETY The blueprint increases the Food and Drug Administration budget by $1 billion to protect the nation’s food supply. WORKPLACE CHANGES The Obama budget proposes employers who do not provide retirement benefits be required to automatically enroll employees in a “direct-deposit†IRA account. This would increase the participation rate from 15 to 80 percent for low- and middle-income workers, the budget document claimed. MASS TRANSIT Public transit would get a boost, including a $5 billion installment on Obama’s campaign promise to build a national network of high-speed passenger trains. Those funds, to spread out over five years, are on top of the $8 billion for high-speed trains in the recently enacted economic stimulus bill. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "WebTV Dawgs/Dittos" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/WebTV-Pals -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
