As the federal government confirmed that there would be no Cost of Living Adjustment for those receiving Social Security benefits, there was bipartisan support out of Congress for a plan to give seniors an extra payment of $250.

"Our seniors and veterans cannot afford to shoulder the burden of our struggling economy while they wait for the federal government to fix it," said Republican Rep. Ginny Brown Waite of Florida.

But while Democrats and Republicans rallied around the bonus payment, GOP leaders signaled that they wanted the proposed $13 billion extra paid for with offsetting budget cuts.

That sentiment wasn't lost on some of my listeners.

"How can we ever balance the budgets or cut deficits when all we do is give money away," said Mary Murphy.

This will be an interesting one, because on one hand, there is no way lawmakers can block this extra payment, because it would be political suicide.

On the other hand, you might be able to figure out a way to have it paid for, by offsetting it with either budget cuts, or unused economic stimulus funds, as was suggested by some in the GOP, including Rep. Brown Waite.

The Florida Republican's bill, HR 3691, would use unobligated money fromthe stimulus to pay for that kind of plan.

"I am glad the President recognizes that our seniors and veterans need relief," Brown Waite said in a press release.

There will be more battling over paying for certain federal spending next week, when the Senate will consider what's known as the "Doc Fix", shorthand for a long delayed fix in Medicare physician payments.

Democrats will try to bring a $245 billion, 10 year fix to the Senate floor, but already it is running into flak from the Chairman of the Budget Committee, Sen. Kent Conrad (D-ND), who wants to have offsets to pay for it.

Why is this "fix" needed?  Well, there are scheduled reductions in Medical doctor payments, an effort from the past to reduce spending in Medicare.

Congress usually fixes this each year, instead of doing it over the long haul, sort of like they "patch" the Alternative Minimum Tax each year, because a long term solution would be very expensive.

If there is no action, Medicare physician payments would drop 21% next year.  You can imagine the kicking and crying that would go on with that.

The best part is that Democrats want to deal with this outside of the health reform bill and exempt the money from pay-as-you-go requirements.

Budget sleight-of-hand, anyone?