Health & Fitness
Government By Deadline - Part 2
Government deadlines seem to be inextricably tied to Congressional breaks. Important decisions are put off waiting for Congress to return to business while the general public is left "on hold".
About three months ago, I wrote about the fact that our federal government is lurching from deadline to deadline in setting policy – particularly financial policy. To recap, a deadline for raising the United States debt ceiling, right before Congress went home for their summer break, was temporarily “solved” by imposing a new deadline to be met by a newly formed Super committee. The new deadline was Nov. 23, right before Congress went on its Thanksgiving break.
It wasn’t met, with consequences set for later this year.
Another deadline crisis for extending the Payroll Tax Cut, extending unemployment benefits, and the reimbursement of Doctors for Medicare services ran out in late December right before Congress went on its holiday break. It was extended for
two months to March 1. Guess what? Congress is about to go on its weeklong February break for Presidents’ Day and the issue seems deadlocked again.
One thing in common with all these deadline crises is that they always run up against some Congressional recess or break. The current deadlock on the extension of the Payroll tax cut, renewing unemployment benefits and reimbursement for Medicare services performed by Doctors, is no closer to being resolved than it was in December. Once again Congress will leave for its break with only three days to resolve it when they return. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that the idea of another two month extension of the aforementioned issues is, once again, being seriously considered. What Congressional break will that one come up against?
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What seems lost in these continuing crises by Congress, is that there are real people who have important aspects of their lives in limbo while our Senators and Representatives jockey for advantage. People should be able to know exactly what their payroll withholding tax amount will be. People should know how long unemployment benefits will last. Doctors should know what level of Medicare
reimbursement they will get for services. No matter whether we favor one solution on these issues or another, millions of people are essentially left “on hold” by Congress waiting for them to come back from their breaks.
