Economics/Trade

Sens. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) introduced a joint resolution Wednesday in opposition to using a chained consumer price index (CPI) for Social Security payments.

“The time has come for the United States Senate to send a very loud and clear message to the American people,” Sanders said on the Senate floor. “We are not going to balance the budget on the backs of the elderly and disabled veterans. … That is morally unacceptable.”

The Senate took a second procedural step Wednesday on a a bill that would allow states to collect online sales tax.

In a 75-22 vote, the Senate proceeded to The Marketplace Fairness Act, S. 743, which would empower states to collect taxes on purchases made online by consumers in their states.

On Monday, the Senate voted 74-20 to end debate on the motion to proceed and last month the body passed a non-binding budget resolution supporting the Marketplace Fairness language on a 75-24 vote.

The Senate voted 96-0 to confirm Sylvia Burwell as director of the Office of Management and Budget.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Wednesday that President Obama’s party is abandoning him by proposing to replace sequestration with war savings rather than tax increases.

“The majority leader is clearly ditching the president on this issue,” McConnell said of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s (D-Nev.) bill to offset sequester cuts with war savings, which Reid tried to pass on Tuesday. “As you may recall, the president has said he’d only consider replacing the sequester with a tax hike. And whatever you want to say about OCO [Overseas Contingency Operations], it’s not a tax hike — it’s borrowed money that’ll have to be repaid later."

Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) objected to proceeding to a plan from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) to replace the 2013 sequester cuts.

“What is happening in the Senate is phenomenal,” Coburn said Tuesday. “We’re going to discomfort and inconvenience thousands of America people for a political point because we cannot cut any spending in Washington.”

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Tuesday that he would oppose the online sales tax bill being debated in the Senate.

“For me, the issue boils down to that fact that the legislation we’re considering would create an enormous compliance burden for a lot of small businesses out there, making them tax collectors for thousands of far-away jurisdictions,” McConnell said. “Just as importantly, this legislation would increase the tax burden on Kentuckians.”

The fight on who is to blame for sequestration continued on the Senate floor Tuesday.

Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) blamed President Obama and his administration for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) furloughs that will cause long delays for travelers at airports this summer.

The Senate voted 74-20 on Monday to end debate on proceeding to a bill that would allow states to collect online sales tax.

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) said Monday that the online sales tax bill would create a new tax.

Wyden said the Marketplace Fairness Act being considered by the Senate this week, leads America down a “dark path.”

“This will be seen as a new tax,” Wyden said. “This is money that is going to come out of the pockets of American families … an additional $22 billion in sales taxes they have never had to pay before.”

Dozens of House Democrats on Monday introduced a resolution that rejected President Obama's proposal for calculating growth in Social Security benefits.

The resolution, H.Con.Res. 34, was sponsored by Rep. David Cicilline (D-R.I.), and co-sponsored by 81 other Democrats. It says it is the sense of Congress that "the Chained Consumer Price Index should not be used to calculate cost of living adjustments for Social Security benefits."