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THE NEWS SUN
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 13, 2013
BUDGET: Bill will cut deficit $23 million in 10 years FROM PAGE A1
Not as cold today with partly sunny skies and a high of 30 degrees. Low tonight of 22. Saturday will be cloudy with snow expected. Daytime high of 29 and the overnight low will dip into the teens. Continued cloudy Sunday. Highs will be in the low 20s. Very cold Sunday night with a low of 8.
Sunrise Saturday 7:59 a.m. Sunset Saturday 5:12 p.m.
National forecast Forecast highs for Friday, Dec. 13
Thursday’s Statistics Local HI 17 LO 15 PRC. 0 Fort Wayne HI 23 LO 15 PRC. 0
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Forecast for Friday, Dec. 13
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Chicago 30° | 19°
South Bend 30° | 16°
Fort Wayne 32° | 15°
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South Bend HI 17 LO 16 PRC. 0 Indianapolis HI 21 LO 15 PRC. 0
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Lafayette 34° | 15°
-10s
Indianapolis 34° | 15°
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Evansville 38° | 17°
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Chance Millhouse Louisville 41° | 22°
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Republican presidential primaries. The second-ranking Democrat, Rep. Steny Hoyer of Maryland, joined other party leaders in swinging behind the measure, even though he noted that he represents 62,000 federal workers and said future government employees will pay higher pensions costs because of the bill. “This agreement is better than the alternative” of ever deeper across-the-board cuts, he said. The agreement, negotiated by Ryan and Democratic Sen. Patty Murray of Washington — and endorsed by the White House — would set overall spending levels for the current budget year and the one that begins on Oct. 1, 2014. That straightforward action would probably eliminate the possibility of another government shutdown and reduce the opportunity for the periodic brinkmanship of the kind that has flourished in the current three-year era of divided government. The measure would erase $63 billion in across-theboard cuts set for January and early 2015 on domestic
and defense programs, leaving about $140 billion in reductions in place. On the other side of the budget ledger, it projects savings totaling $85 billion over the coming decade, enough to show a deficit reduction of about $23 billion over the 10-year period. The cuts would be replaced with savings generated from dozens of sources. Among them are higher airline security fees, curbs on the pension benefits of new federal workers and additional costs for corporations whose pensions are guaranteed by the federal government. The measure also would slow the annual cost-of-living increase in benefits for military retirees under the age of 62. The bill includes a 90-day provision that postpones a 20 percent cut in reimbursements for doctors who treat Medicare patients and replaces it with an increase of one-half of one percent The combination of short-term spending increases and long-term savings would send deficits higher for the current budget year and each of the next two, a dramatic departure from the conservative
orthodoxy that Republicans have enforced since taking control of the House three years ago. That was a step too far for many Republicans, including some seeking election to the Senate next year. Rep. Jack Kingston of Georgia, one of several Senate hopefuls from his state, said he would vote against the legislation. He said the existing across-theboard cuts “have a tendency to cut out muscle with fat, but it’s still the only tool in town for cutting spending.” Rep. Tom Cotton, who is challenging Democratic Sen. Mark Pryor of Arkansas, announced his opposition, too, and said the legislation “busts the spending caps that took effect just months ago by spending billions now in exchange for supposed long-term spending cuts.” Other Republicans said despite shortcomings, the bill was the best the party could get in divided government. “We have Republican and Democratic-controlled houses and as a result no one solution is possible,” said Rep. Darrell Issa of California.
Many Americans Interpreter says he hallucinated pass on holiday shopping sprees NEW YORK (AP) — Many Americans are watching the annual holiday spending ritual from the sidelines this year. Money is still tight for some. Others are fed up with commercialism of the holidays. Still others are waiting for bigger bargains. And people like Lark-Marie Anton Menchini are more thoughtful about their purchases. The New York public relations executive says in the past she’d buy her children up to eight Christmas gifts each, but this year they’re getting three apiece. The leftover money is going toward their college savings. “We told them Santa is … being very conscious of how many gifts he puts on his sleigh,” Menchini, 36, says. Despite an improving economy, most workers are not seeing meaningful wage increases. And those who can splurge say the brash commercialism around the holidays — many more stores are opening for business on Thanksgiving — is a turnoff. But perhaps the biggest factor is that shoppers are less motivated than ever by holiday sales. Since the Great Recession, retailers have been dangling more discounts throughout the year, so Americans have learned to hold out for even deeper holiday savings on clothes, electronics and more. To stay competitive and boost sales, retailers are slashing prices further during their busiest season of the year, which is cutting into their own profit margins. There aren’t reliable figures on how many people plan to shop during the holidays. But early data points to a shift in holiday spending. The National Retail Federation estimates that sales during the start to the official start to season — the four-day weekend that began on Thanksgiving Day — dropped 2.9 percent from last year to $57.4 billion. That would mark the first decline in the seven years the trade group has tracked spending. And during the week afterward — which ended on Sunday — sales fell another 2.9 percent compared with a year ago, according to data tracker ShopperTrak, which did not give dollar amounts. Meanwhile, the number of shoppers in stores plunged nearly 22 percent. The numbers are sobering
JOHANNESBURG (AP) — The man accused of faking sign interpretation while standing alongside world leaders like U.S. President Barack Obama at Nelson Mandela’s memorial service said Thursday he hallucinated that angels for retailers, which depend were entering the stadium, on making up to 40 percent has schizophrenia and has of their revenue in the last been violent in the past. two months of the year. Thamsanqa Jantjie said They suggest shifts in the in a 45-minute interview attitudes of U.S. shoppers with The Associated Press that could force stores to that his hallucinations began reshape their strategies. while he was interpreting Stores slashed prices and that he tried not to panic during the recession to because there were “armed get financially-strapped policemen around me.” shoppers in stores and to He added that he was once better compete with the hospitalized in a mental cheaper prices of online health facility for more than retailers like Amazon. But one and a half years. shoppers got used to those The statements by Jantjie deals and now won’t buy also raise serious security without them. The constant issues for Obama, other discounting has blunted the heads of state and United “wow” factor of sales during Nations Secretary-General the holidays. Ban Ki-moon who stood For instance, some next to Jantjie as they made retailers were offering speeches at FNB Stadium discounts of 40 percent in Soweto, Johannesburg’s or more on the day after famed black township. The Thanksgiving known ceremony honored Mandela, as Black Friday. But the anti-apartheid icon and Jennifer Ambrosh, 40 former president who died was unimpressed with the on Dec. 5. “deals” she saw on that A South African deputy day. “There’s a lot of hype, Cabinet minister, Hendribut … the deals aren’t that etta Bogopane-Zulu, later good,” Ambrosh, an accoun- held a news conference to tant, says. announce that “a mistake Overall, the retail federa- happened” in the hiring of tion expects spending in Jantjie. However, many November and December questions remain, including to rise 3.9 percent to $602.1 who in the government billion. But to get that hired the company that growth, analysts say retailers contracted Jantjie, how will need to discount much money the governheavily, which eats away ment paid the company and profits. Jantjie’s own involvement There are signs that with the company — and profits for the quarter even whether it really exists. that includes the holiday AP journalists who season are being hurt by the visited the address of discounting. Walmart and the company that Jantjie American Eagle Outfitters provided found a different are among 47 retailers that company there, whose have slashed their outlooks managers said they for either the quarter or the knew nothing about SA year. Overall, retailers’ earnings growth is expected to be up 2.1 percent, according to research firm Retail Metrics. That would be the worst performance JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. since profit fell 6.7 percent (AP) — Residents in some in the second quarter of parts of the U.S. are signing 2009 when the country was up for health care coverage in a recession. at a significantly greater rate The recession not only than others through the new taught Americans to expect online insurance marketbargains. It also showed them places now operating in that they could make do with every state. less. And in the economic The discrepancy may recovery, many have trace back to the political maintained that frugality. leanings of their elected So whereas in a better leaders. economy, Americans Newly released federal would make both big and figures show more people small purchases, in this are picking private insurance economy they’re being plans or being routed to more thoughtful and making Medicaid programs in states choices about what to buy. with Democratic leaders That hasn’t boded who have fully embraced well for retailers that sell the federal health care clothing, shoes and holiday law than in states where items. That’s because Republican elected officials Americans are buying more have derisively rejected big-ticket items over the what they call “Obamacare.” holidays. On one side of the
AP
Thamsanqa Jantjie gesticulates at his home during an interview in Johannesburg, South Africa, Thursday. Jantjie, the man accused of faking sign interpre-
Interpreters. A woman who answered the phone at a number that Jantjie provided confirmed that she worked at the company that hired him for the memorial service but declined comment and hung up. Government officials said they have tried to track down the company that provided Jantjie but the owners “have vanished into thin air,” said BogopaneZulu, deputy minister of Women, Children and People with Disabilities. She apologized to deaf people around the world who were offended by Jantjie’s incomprehensible signing and said an investigation is under way to determine how Jantjie was hired and what vetting process, if any, he underwent for his security clearance. The deputy minister said the translation
tation next to world leaders at Nelson Mandela’s memorial, told a local newspaper that he was hallucinating and hearing voices.
company offered sub-standard services and the rate they purportedly paid the translator, $77 a day, is far below the usual rate of up to $164 an hour. Ordinarily, sign language interpreters in South Africa are switched every 20 minutes to maintain their concentration levels, she said. Jantjie was on the stage for the entire service that lasted more than four hours. The deputy minister declined to say who in South Africa’s government was responsible for contracting the company that provided the bogus translator, or how those rules were flouted. “It’s an interdepartmental responsibility,” she said. “We are trying to establish what happened.” Jantjie insisted in the AP interview that he was doing proper sign-language interpretation of the
speeches of world leaders. But he also apologized for his performance that has been dismissed by many sign-language experts as gibberish. “I would like to tell everybody that if I’ve offended anyone, please, forgive me,” Jantjie said in his tidy cement house outfitted with a big-screen TV and with two late-model cars in the carport on the outskirts of Soweto. “But what I was doing, I was doing what I believe is my calling. I was doing what I believe makes a difference.” “What happened that day, I see angels come to the stadium … I start realizing that the problem is here. And the problem, I don’t know the attack of this problem, how will it comes. Sometimes I react violent on that place. Sometimes I will see things that chase me,” Jantjie said.
Health sign-ups differ among states political divide are a dozen mostly Democratic leaning states, including California, Minnesota and New York. They have both expanded Medicaid for lower-income adults and started their own health insurance exchanges for people to shop for federally subsidized private insurance. On the other side are two dozen conservative states, such as Texas, Florida and Missouri. They have both rejected the Medicaid expansion and refused any role in running an online insurance exchange, leaving that entirely to the federal government. The new federal figures, providing a state-by-state breakdown of enrollment in the new health care program through November, showed
that the political differences among leaders over the initiative are turning into differences in participation among the uninsured. Even though many conservative states have higher levels of poverty and more people without health coverage, fewer of them may receive new insurance, said Dylan Roby, an assistant public health professor at the Center for Health Policy Research at the University of California, Los Angeles. With the patchwork implementation of the federal health care law, “the gap will exacerbate,” Roby said The U.S. Health and Human Services Department reported this week that 364,682 people had
signed up for private coverage through the new health insurance marketplaces as of Nov. 30 and an additional 803,077 had been determined eligible for Medicaid. But the rate of residents gaining health coverage was more than three times as great in the states embracing the federal health care law than in those whose leaders have resisted it. In the dozen states embracing the overhaul, more than 50 percent of those who applied for coverage picked an insurance plan or were eligible for Medicaid. That rate was barely 15 percent in the two dozen states that aren’t cooperating in the implementation of the federal health care law.