One rule required any tax cut or increase in spending for a benefit program to be offset dollar for dollar by a tax increase or spending cut.
Denmark began offering a state benefits program to old people only in 1891.
The health care reform law Obama enacted in 2010 depends heavily on Medicaid, a joint federal-state health benefits program, to reach the goal of near-universal health care.
In "Critical: What We Can Do About the Health-Care Crisis," published in February, Mr. Daschle proposed creating a Federal Health Board, similar to the Federal Reserve System, and merging employers' plans, Medicaid and Medicare with an expanded federal employee health benefits program to provide universal coverage.
It's a logical two-step: First use machine learning to find the very best candidates out there, then be flexible enough to offer them a benefits program that appeals to their demographics and specific needs.
On Oct. 4 Mikhail Baryshnikov, above right, with Cunningham, will perform as part of a special benefit program to introduce a collaboration between the Merce Cunningham Dance Company and Baryshnikov Arts Center.
The House also passed a measure to expand a benefits program for workers who lose jobs to foreign competition by a vote of 307 to 122.
Lately, though, discounted or even free advice on applying to college has emerged as a high-profile perk, one that was dangled last week by a cable company in a bid to attract subscribers and, on Monday, offered by a benefits program of the A.F.L.-C.I.O. to more than 13 million union members.
Senator Orrin Hatch, the ranking Republican on the Finance Committee, said Republicans were responding to a decision by the White House to include in the free trade legislation the expansion of a benefits program for workers who lose jobs to foreign competition.
He would turn Medicare from a fee-for-service guaranteed benefit program to one that lets people buy different levels of health insurance.
