|
click above for details
click for
details
VA Watchdog Stuff...
cups, hats, shirts...
click on item to order
and support the site.
Be sure to get all four
VA Watchdog dot Org
RSS feeds --
Daily VA
News Flashes
House CVA
Veterans' News
Senate CVA
Veterans' News
VA Press
Releases
Download your
free copy of the
2008 VA benefits
handbook here...
|
Printer-Friendly Version
DISABLED AND PENSION VETS STAND TO GET $250 FROM
STIMULUS PACKAGE -- One-time payments would go to
Social
Security recipients, poor people on Supplemental
Security
Income, and veterans receiving disability and
pensions.
Below is the latest on the stimulus package and
how vets may benefit.
Remember, as of this posting, there is a "deal"
but not a vote. We don't have it in writing. That will be
posted as soon as it becomes available. Please do not write and ask
if you qualify or when will the check arrive because we don't know that
yet. Stay tuned.....
Story here...
http://www.google.com/host
ednews/ap/article/ALeqM5j81g2abYnnR73
0DbzIZpkDsGPAJwD96AB06O0
Story below:
Your comments accepted at bottom of
page.
Share story/email link.
-------------------------
Highlights of House-Senate economic stimulus plan
By The Associated Press
Highlights of a nearly $789 billion compromise version of President Barack
Obama's economic recovery plan. Additional debt costs would add about $330
billion over 10 years. Many provisions expire in two years.
___
Spending
AID TO POOR AND UNEMPLOYED
_ $40 billion to provide extended unemployment benefits through Dec. 31,
and increase them by $25 a week; $20 billion to increase food stamp
benefits by 14 percent; $4 billion for job training; $3 billion in
temporary welfare payments.
DIRECT CASH PAYMENTS
_ $14.2 billion to give one-time $250 payments to Social Security
recipients, poor people on Supplemental Security Income, and veterans
receiving disability and pensions.
INFRASTRUCTURE
_ $46 billion for transportation projects, including $27.5 billion for
highway and bridge construction and repair; $8.4 billion for mass transit;
$8 billion for construction of high-speed railways and $1.3 billion for
Amtrak; $4.6 billion for the Army Corps of Engineers; $4 billion for
public housing improvements; $6 billion for clean and drinking water
projects; $7.2 billion to bring broadband Internet service to underserved
areas; $4.2 billion to repair and modernize Defense Department facilities.
HEALTH CARE
_ $24.7 billion to provide a 65 percent subsidy of health care insurance
premiums for the unemployed under the COBRA program; $86.6 billion to help
states with Medicaid; $19 billion to modernize health information
technology systems; $10 billion for health research and construction of
National Institutes of Health facilities; $1 billion for prevention and
wellness programs.
STATE BLOCK GRANTS
_ $8.8 billion in aid to states to defray budget cuts.
ENERGY
_ About $50 billion for energy programs, focused chiefly on efficiency and
renewable energy, including $5 billion to weatherize modest-income homes;
$6.4 billion to clean up nuclear weapons production sites; $11 billion
toward a so-called "smart electricity grid" to reduce waste; $6 billion to
subsidize loans for renewable energy projects; $6.3 billion in state
energy efficiency and clean energy grants; and $4.5 billion make federal
buildings more energy efficient; $2 billion in grants for advanced
batteries for electric vehicles.
EDUCATION
_ $44.5 billion in aid to local school districts to prevent layoffs and
cutbacks, with flexibility to use the funds for school modernization and
repair; $25.2 billion to school districts to fund special education and
the No Child Left Behind law for students in K-12; $15.6 billion to boost
the maximum Pell Grant by $500 to $5,350; $2 billion for Head Start.
HOUSING
_$4 billion to repair and make more energy efficient public housing
projects; $2 billion for the redevelop foreclosed and abandoned homes;
$1.5 billion for homeless shelters; $2 billion to pay off a looming
shortfall in public housing accounts.
SCIENCE
_ $3 billion for the National Science Foundation for basic science and
engineering research; $1 billion for NASA; $1.6 billion for research in
areas such as climate science, biofuels, high-energy physics and nuclear
physics.
HOMELAND SECURITY
_ $2.8 billion for homeland security programs, including $1 billion for
airport screening equipment.
LAW ENFORCEMENT
_ $4 billion in grants to state and local law enforcement to hire officers
and purchase equipment.
___
Taxes
NEW TAX CREDIT
_ About $116 billion for a $400 per-worker, $800 per-couple tax credits in
2009 and 2010. For the last half of 2009, workers could expect to see
about $13 a week less withheld from their paychecks starting around June.
Millions of Americans who don't make enough money to pay federal income
taxes could file returns next year and receive checks. Individuals making
more than $75,000 and couples making more than $150,000 would receive
reduced amounts.
ALTERNATIVE MINIMUM TAX
_ About $70 billion to spare about 24 million taxpayers from being hit
with the alternative minimum tax in 2009. The change would save a family
of four an average of $2,300. The tax was designed to make sure wealthy
taxpayers can't use credits and deductions to avoid paying any taxes. But
it was never indexed to inflation, so families making as little as $45,000
could get significant increases without the change. Congress addresses it
each year, usually in the fall.
EXPANDED COLLEGE CREDIT
_ About $14 billion to provide a $2,500 expanded tax credit for college
tuition and related expenses for 2009 and 2010. The credit is phased out
for couples making more than $160,000.
CHILD TAX CREDIT
_ About $15 billion to provide the $1,000 child tax credit to more
families that don't make enough money to pay income taxes.
EARNED INCOME TAX CREDIT
_ $4.7 billion to expand the Earned Income Tax Credit for low-income
families with three or more children.
HOMEBUYER CREDIT
_ $6.6 billion to repeal a requirement that a $8,000 first-time home buyer
tax credit be paid back over time for homes purchased from Jan. 1 to Nov.
30, unless the home is sold within three years.
AUTO SALES
_ $1.7 billion to makes sales taxes on paid on new cars, light trucks,
recreational vehicles and motorcycles tax deductible through the end of
the year.
RENEWABLE ENERGY INCENTIVES
_ About 20 billion in tax incentives for renewable energy and energy
efficiency over 10 years, including extending tax credits for energy
produced from wind, geothermal, hydropower and landfill gas; grants to
build renewable energy facilities; tax credits for purchases of
energy-efficient furnaces, windows and doors, or insulation; tax credit
for families that purchase plug-in hybrid vehicles.
BONUS DEPRECIATION
_ $5 billion to extend a provision allowing businesses buying equipment
such as computers to speed up its depreciation through 2009.
REPEAL BANK CREDIT
_ Repeal a Treasury provision that allowed firms that buy money-losing
banks to use more of the losses as tax credits to offset the profits of
the merged banks for tax purposes. The change would increase taxes on the
merged banks by $7 billion over 10 years.
___
Debt Limit
DEBT LIMIT INCREASE
_Increases the statutory limit on the national debt by $789 billion, to
$12.1 trillion.
-------------------------
posted by Larry Scott
Founder and Editor
VA Watchdog dot Org
-------------------------
-------------------------
Please post your comments below on Google
Friend Connect. You must sign in. For larger view and work
area, click blue "expand" button in upper right corner of comment box.
-------------------------
Don't forget to read all of today's VA
News Flashes (click here)
Click here to make VA Watchdog dot Org your homepage
(go back to VA Watchdog dot Org Home
Page) |
Military
Medical Malpractice
Legal
Network
VA Watchdog Stuff...
cups, hats, shirts...
click on item to order
and support the site.
|
