Deal Reached On $789.5B Stimulus Package

美国国会和白宫就一项总额7,895亿美元的经济复苏计划达成一致，为本周晚些时候国会进行最终表决铺平了道路。议员们尚未公布计划的具体内容，但据知情人士透露，白宫同意缩短薪金税免税期，减少拟议中对财政困难的州政府的援助，缩减对失业工人提供医疗福利的规模。作为白宫在上述问题上让步的交换条件，白宫和国会谈判人员在计划中重新加入了一笔用于学校现代化的90亿美元预算，此前的参议院版本取消了这笔预算。知情人士称，计划包括了一项使部分中产阶级纳税人免缴替代最低税额的措施。但在折衷计划中，参议院此前采纳的汽车和房屋购置部分税项减免显著减少。European Pressphoto Agency参议院多数党领袖瑞德(Harry Reid)（中）参加一个记者招待会参议院多数派领袖内华达州民主党参议员雷德(Harry Reid)宣布了达成协议的消息。他在周三晚间表示，参众两院已经完成了磋商。雷德说，我们已经就分歧达成了一致。双方都作出了让步。三位温和派共和党参议员对议案在参议院获得通过起到了关键作用，缅因州共和党参议员科林斯(Susan Collins)就是其中之一。她和雷德一道力挺最新达成的折衷协议。科林斯说，复苏计划的最终规模将是7,890亿美元，其中大约35%用于税项减免，65%用于联邦政府支出。美国总统奥巴马(Barack Obama)在伊利诺伊州斯普林菲尔德的一个建筑工地上发表讲话，对围绕这一庞大计划的协调取得进展表示欢迎。众议院领袖此前希望在周三晚间正式推出折衷议案，在周四进行最终投票。雷德正努力争取参议院周五进行最终表决，但他也准备令参议院全天候工作以克服程序障碍，推动议案在这个周末获得最终通过。一些经济学家说，最终方案在帮助奥巴马实现新增或保住400万个工作岗位的目标方面可能会勉为其难。方案减少了奥巴马此前提议的对各州的直接援助。举例来说，据知情人士称，正在讨论的最新版复苏计划中，一个关键项目（组建一个稳定基金帮助现金紧张的各州避免削减预算从而加剧经济衰退）的预算可能将确定在440亿美元。这个金额略高于参议院议案中的数字，但比众议院批准奥巴马支持的计划规模少了300多亿美元。根据白宫和国会用来计算经济福利的模型得出的数字，联邦政府每向州政府提供1美元资金用于避免削减服务或失业预算，就能带来1.38美元的经济提振效果。相比之下，根据上述模型预计，计划议案中包括的延缓替代最低税额扩大的措施如果实施，每避税1美元，只能带来50美分的经济刺激效果。美国进步中心(Center for American Progress)的经济学家斯科特•礼莱(Scott Lilly)谈到奥巴马的就业目标时说，我不认为这能实现他的目标。Associated Press美国总统奥巴马周三访问了弗吉尼亚州一处建筑工地在相互讨价还价中，议员们将火力对准了一项会削减某些参议院批准的减税开支的计划。一项旨在刺激汽车销售的115亿美元税收减免项目将缩减至约20亿美元，购车人买车时所缴的地方销售税将可从其所需支付的联邦所得税中扣掉，而原计划提出的建议是购车人为购车贷款支付的利息将可从从其所需支付的联邦所得税中减扣。一项350亿美元的购房支出抵税项目被取消，代之以一个金额为20亿至30亿美元的项目，首次购房者享受7,500美元抵税优惠后将不必再对这笔款项履行任何偿还义务。与此同时，国会和白宫已决定保留一个700亿美元的项目，这一项目获得了参议院中一批有影响力的温和共和党人的支持，该项目将使数百万中等收入美国人得以免缴替代最低税(AMT)，这项税收原本是向富人征收的。Moody's Economy.com的首席经济学家马克•赞迪(Mark Zandi)说，多年来国会每年都通过了暂缓征收替代最低税一年的补充规定，因此消费者想当然地认为这项税将被搁置。赞迪就经济刺激计划向白宫和国会的民主党人建言献策。但两党议员们都想将允许中等收入美国人免缴替代最低税的内容保留在经济刺激方案内，而不是今年晚些时候再单独为其出台一项立法。这就排挤了白宫和国会民主党领袖曾想加入到刺激计划中的其他一些项目。此外，根据谈判达成的框架协议，奥巴马的“劳者有其酬”(Making Work Pay)减税项目将被缩减规模，这一计划将免除美国就业者一部分工薪税。根据正逐渐成形的经济刺激方案，单个工人的工薪税免税额将从500美元下调到400美元，一对夫妇的工薪税免税额将从1,000美元下调到800美元。经济刺激计划还将扩大育儿家庭抵税额的享受范围，将有资格享受这一抵税优惠者的收入门框从8,500美元下调到3,000美元。据知晓谈判情况的人士说，奥巴马建议通过综合预算调节法(COBRA)规定的联邦政府资助计划为被解雇者自己上的私人保险提供补贴，这一建议将在经济刺激计划中被部分保留。但另一项有关允许各州扩大失业者医疗补助计划(Medicaid)的建议则被放弃。白宫希望恢复实施对遭受经济危机沉重打击的州和地方政府提供援助的其他一些举措，但这一努力只获得了部分成功。经济刺激计划的规模符合奥巴马最初所建议的7,750亿美元，而较参议院上周讨论的9,300亿美元版本有大幅缩减。新刺激方案的总体规模符合一小批共和党参议员开出的条件，这些人不顾共和党参议院领导层的反对，上周晚些时候投票支持了送交参议院讨论的经济刺激计划。当协商妥协后的刺激方案被送回参议院表决时，他们对方案的支持将至关重要，届时民主党需要参议院中全部58名民主党议员外加至少两名共和党议员的支持方案才能过关。民主党参议员本•聂尔森(Ben Nelson)周三表示，虽然他知道最终方案的规模将为7,900亿美元左右，但围绕一些细节问题的谈判仍在进行，这些问题包括刺激计划中可以拿出多少资金资助修建和翻新学校等。Greg Hitt / Jonathan Weisman（更新完成）相关阅读奥巴马正告反对者不要拖后腿 2009-02-10美国股市情牵华盛顿 2009-02-09


Congress and the White House reached agreement on a $789.5 billion economic-recovery package, clearing the way for final votes late this week on Capitol Hill.Lawmakers haven't released specifics of the deal, but people familiar with the talks say the White House agreed to trim a payroll tax holiday, reduce proposed aid to ailing state governments and scale back initiatives to provide health care for laid-off workers. In exchange for giving ground on those issues, White House and congressional negotiators restored some $9 billion in funds for school modernization, which was stripped out the Senate bill. A measure to shield certain middle-income taxpayers from the alternative minimum tax is part of the package, people familiar with the talks say. But the conference deal would sharply scale back some tax breaks for buying cars and houses adopted by the Senate.The agreement was announced by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., who said late Wednesday the House and Senate had concluded negotiations. 'We've been able to bridge those differences,' he said. 'This has been a give and take.'(This story and related background material will be available on The Wall Street Journal Web site, WSJ.com.)Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, one of three moderate Republicans whose votes are critical to passage in the Senate, joined Mr. Reid to back the latest compromise. She said the final cost of the recovery plan would be $789 billion. The plan is broken down with about 35% in tax credits and 65% in federal government spending.President Barack Obama, speaking at a construction site in Springfield, Ill., hailed progress on 'this endeavor of enormous scope and scale.'House leaders hoped to formally introduce the compromise bill Wednesday night for a final vote Thursday. Mr. Reid is looking for a final vote Friday in the Senate, but is ready to keep the Senate open around the clock to overcome procedural hurdles and press for final passage this weekend.The final deal may strain to reach Mr. Obama's goal of creating or saving 4 million jobs, some economists said. The proposed package includes less direct aid to states than Mr. Obama had proposed. For example, funding for one key account - a 'stabilization fund' intended to help cash-strapped states avoid budget cuts that might exacerbate the recession - would be set at $44 billion, under the latest version of the plan under discussion, according to people familiar with the discussions. That's somewhat higher than the Senate bill but more than $30 billion less than that approved by the House and endorsed by Mr. Obama.A dollar sent to a state government to stave off cuts in services or layoffs yields $1.38 in economic boost, according to models used by the White House and Congress to calculate economic benefit. By contrast, the proposed package's inclusion of a measure to slow the expansion of the alternative minimum tax will yield only 50 cents of stimulus for every dollar of avoided tax, the models predict.'I don't think this is going to meet it,' Scott Lilly, an economist at the Center for American Progress, said of the Obama jobs goal.In the horse-trading, lawmakers are zeroing in on a plan that would trim the cost of some Senate-approved tax cuts. An $11.5 billion tax break to spur auto sales would be scaled back to some $2 billion, and would give car buyers a federal income tax deduction on local sales tax, not on interest on loans, as was also originally proposed. A $35 billion tax credit to support home sales was being jettisoned in favor of a more modest $2 billion to $3 billion proposal that would eliminate the repayment requirement in the existing $7,500 tax credit for first-time homebuyers.At the same time, Congress and the White House have decided to preserve a $70 billion measure - supported by an influential group of moderate Republicans in the Senate - that would shield millions of middle-income Americans from the alternative minimum tax, or AMT, a levy originally designed to hit the wealthy.For years now, Congress has passed a one-year AMT 'patch,' so consumers take it for granted that the tax will be held at bay, said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Economy.com, who has been advising the White House and congressional Democrats on the plan.But lawmakers from both parties wanted to keep the measure in the stimulus package, rather than pass it separately later in the year. That crowded out other projects the White House and congressional Democratic leaders had pushed for.Among other things, Mr. Obama's 'Making Work Pay' tax cut - a payroll tax holiday for workers - would be scaled back under the framework being negotiated. The emerging package would set the value of the benefit at $400 for individual workers, down from $500, and $800 for couples, down from $1,000. The package would also broaden the reach of the child tax credit, lowering the income threshold to qualify for the credit to $3,000, from $8,500.The president's proposal to subsidize private insurance for people who have been laid off, through the federal COBRA plan, would survive in limited form. But a proposal to allow states to expand Medicaid for the unemployed is all but gone, according to people familiar with negotiations.White House efforts to restore other assistance to hard-hit state and local governments had only partial success.The scale of the package accords closely with Mr. Obama's original, $775 billion target and is significantly scaled back from the $930 billion package under consideration last week in the Senate. The new package's overall size meets a condition set by a small group of Republican senators who broke with the Republican Senate leadership and voted for the Senate package late last week. Their support will be crucial when the compromise package comes back for a vote in the Senate, where Democrats need the votes of all 58 senators from their own party, plus at least two Republicans.Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., said Wednesday that he understood that the final bill would be roughly $790 billion, but he indicated that negotiations were still continuing over details such as the scope of plans to use stimulus money to finance construction or renovation of schools.Greg Hitt / Jonathan Weisman