Eight Democratic senators are urging colleagues to reject proposals to pay for extending the payroll tax cut by prolonging a federal worker pay freeze. The Senate blocked consideration Thursday of separate Democratic and Republican plans to extend the payroll tax cut, as the partisan stalemate over the issue continues. The GOP plan would have paid for the cut by freezing federal pay for a third straight year, cutting 200,000 federal jobs through attrition and by charging higher Medicare premiums for wealthy seniors. Read full article >>