Citing Hard Times All Over, Republicans Block $250 Bonus for Senior Citizens

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By: Stephen Koff, The Plain Dealer

Senate Republicans just followed their House colleagues and voted down a proposal to give $250 bonuses to every Social Security recipient.

Republicans said they didn't want to increase the nation's debt. George Voinovich, the Ohio Republican who is retiring this month, was among those voting no.
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Voinovich spokeswoman Garrette Silverman said the senator voted no because the cost was not offset by savings or revenue elsewhere in the federal budget.

Although the votes for the measure outnumbered those against it, Democrats could not get the two-thirds majority required in the House to pass the measure under procedural rules, or the 60 votes required in the Senate.

Retirees' Social Security raises are linked to the cost of living, and measures used to assess inflation have not reflected a need to put more money in seniors' pockets for two straight years. Retirees' groups say those measures do not reflect the high percentage of Social Security income that goes to pay health care costs, which are rising.

Sherrod Brown, the Ohio Democrat, went to the Senate floor within minutes of the vote and sounded dumb-founded.

"I just stand here amazed at what just happened in the United States Senate, although I shouldn't be," Brown said. He contrasted Republicans' unwillingness to spend an estimated $13 billion to cover the one-time $250 bonuses for seniors with their insistence on extending Bush-era tax cuts that Brown said will cost $700 billion over ten years.

"I just don't get it," Brown said. "I know it's the Christmas season... You'd think there's be a little more generosity in their hearts."


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