Housebound for the Holidays

By GAIL COLLINS
NYT

Right now, you are probably asking yourself: What exactly is going on with Congress? What’s all this yelling about a tax increase? Also, are they shutting down the government again? Because I was really planning to spend my Christmas camping out in a national park.

Good news! Congress did not shut down the government this month. It was sort of dancing around the idea, but the country has grown so inured to this kind of behavior that nobody paid any attention.

Then our lawmakers moved on to a crisis over the payroll tax, unemployment compensation and Medicare. On which they totally dropped the ball.

As things stand now, on Jan. 1, doctors who treat Medicare patients will get a huge cut in pay and the state unemployment compensation systems will be thrown into chaos. People who have been out of work for more than half a year will start falling out of the system in a near-random fashion. Some of those who have been unemployed for 25 weeks will lose their benefits before others who have been collecting for 70.

(More here.)