Although legislative details will change with the health care reform proposals, we do know the estimated price: one trillion dollars.

House Democrats have pledged the pay as you go option so as not to add to the nation’s deficit.

So how do you foot the bill?

Democratic Congressmen may start with the wealthiest Americans, taxing slightly more than 1% of the country’s richest families to come up with $500 billion dollars.

“That’s far from being finalized and alot of adjusting is going to take place,” said Rep. Bob Etheridge, D-NC.

The other half of the tab to insure every American would come from cuts to Medicare and Medicaid.

Rep. Brad Miller, D-NC, said there’s plenty of documentation concerning fraud and abuse in the systems.

“There is $60 billion in (Medicare) fraud  and $32 billion fraud in Medicaid.  We’re going to increase the penalties for fraud and give the Department of Justice new authority to invest more money for investigations.  When I say fraud, I mean, charging for something that didn’t happen.” said Miller.

More savings will come from simplifying what lawmakers describe as management inefficiencies.

“One in five Americans get Medicare through a privately administered form of Medicare, instead of Medicare itself, which costs 14% more,” said Miller. “Those Medicare contracts run by private health insurance companies should be bid out competitively to drive down the cost and that saves a lot of money.”

Some Republicans have expressed concerns that the quality of Medicare’s service will diminish under the proposed reforms.

Rep. Etheridge denied the claim and said, “Whatever we do at the end of the day doesn’t reduce care for people.  We’re taking out waste, whatever fraud is out there and abuse.  If it winds up in someone’s backpocket ,it doesn’t wind up helping seniors, said Etheridge.

Republicans like Senator Richard Burr , R-NC, say the price is too steep.

He is pushing his own reform plan he’ll discuss Tuesday morning at the Carolinas Medical Center along with former Republican presidential nominee John McCain and Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell.

To hear from both sides check out our story in the monitor above.

RALEIGH, N.C. – As the deadline for passing a new budget nears one month overdue, a new poll released today by the Civitas Institute shows that an overwhelming majority of voters think legislators should stop getting paid until they complete their work on the state’s budget.

According to the live caller poll of 600 voters, 65 percent of voters thought that NC legislators should forego their paychecks if they miss the deadline of passing a budget by the end of the fiscal year.  27 percent said they should continue to get paid.  8 percent of voters were unsure.

“As budget negotiations drag on into the dog days of summer, voters obviously feel elected officials should complete the job they were sent to Raleigh to do,” said Civitas Institute Senior Legislative Analyst Chris Hayes.  “The only job required of the General Assembly is to adopt a state budget, if legislators are not going to do that on time, then they should not be compensated for a job they aren’t doing.”

The proposal is supported across all ages, races and political parties, and receives the highest support (75 percent) from government employees.

Full text of questions:

NC Legislators are supposed to pass a state budget by July 1st.  Do you think legislators should stop getting paid if they miss this deadline until they pass a budget?

Yes – 65%
No – 27%
Not Sure – 8%

The study of 600 registered voters was conducted July14-17, 2009 by Tel Opinion Research of Alexandria, Virginia.  All respondents were part of a fully representative sample of registered voters in North Carolina. For purposes of this study, voters we interviewed had to have voted in either the 2004, 2006 or 2008 general elections or were newly registered voters since 2008.

The confidence interval associated with a sample of this size is such that: 95 percent of the time, results from 600 interviews (registered voters) will be within +-4% of the “True Values.” True Values refer to the results obtained if it were possible to interview every person in North Carolina who had voted in either the 2004, 2006 or 2008 general elections or were newly registered voters since 2008.

RALEIGH, N.C.  – North Carolina legislators have agreed to extend a pay cut to themselves and judicial workers that Gov. Beverly Perdue ordered for the rest of state government.

The House agreed Thursday to finalize a bill explaining how Perdue’s executive order to require mandatory furloughs should be carried out.

Perdue’s order said state employees in all three branches of government must take a half-percent pay cut in exchange for 10 hours off. She said it would balance the last two months of the state’s budget.

But the separation of powers meant Perdue couldn’t touch the pay of lawmakers or judicial branch workers. Judges’ pay can’t be cut while they’re in office. All but about 20 of the state’s 400 judges have agreed to take the same pay cut.

RALEIGH, N.C. — About 20 North Carolina judges have not agreed to take the same pay cut that state employees must absorb, in spite of a request by Gov. Beverly Perdue, the N&O reports.

WASHINGTON – Even if the Senate passes a bill to ban Congress’ automatic pay raises, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is not promising to bring up a similar bill in the House.

Asked if the current economic climate is a good time for lawmakers to vote on their pay raises, Pelosi said the House routinely debates and votes on that subject. Last year, they did not do so.

The Senate voted this week to skip their automatic pay raise next year because of the recession. The House had voted earlier to do so. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid says he is committed to passing a bill to ban automatic hikes.

WASHINGTON  – Wary of angering constituents during the recession, members of Congress will turn down the automatic pay raise they are due next year.

The salary freeze for 2010 was in the spending bill the House took up Wednesday. Rank-and-file members of the House and Senate now get $174,000 a year. Leaders get somewhat more; House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., receives $223,500.

The move does not affect the $4,700 cost of living adjustment that senators and representatives received as of Jan. 1 this year. President Barack Obama, in his first day in office, also froze salaries for White House employees earning more than $100,000 a year.

There was little debate on the issue in the House. The freeze was inserted in the resolution establishing the rules of debate for the spending bill. Republicans, who generally opposed the spending bill, voted overwhelmingly for the resolution, which passed 398-24.

“I appreciate the fact that we are going to eliminate the pay raise. We should not be getting a raise in a time like this,” said Rep. Pete Sessions, R-Texas.

“We did the right thing today,” said Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, a leading critic of the lack of openness involving the cost of living adjustment process. Pay increases usually are written into bills so that they occur automatically without open debate.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., indicated several weeks ago that lawmakers should not expect anything extra in their paycheck next year. He said it would be inappropriate for Congress to take its annual cost of living increase in 2010 while unemployment is soaring and the economy is in decline.

Members of Congress get an annual automatic cost of living pay increase under a law passed 20 years ago. There have been other instances where lawmakers declined their raise, mainly to prove a political point or avoid criticism back home.

There was no raise in 1999, when the salary was $136,700. In 2007 Democrats put it off because Congress had not yet acted to increase the minimum wage.

President Obama announced Wednesday that executives of companies receiving federal bailout money will have their pay capped at $500,000 under a revised financial compensation plan, CNN reports.

Gov. Mike Easley’s former sister-in-law is getting a pay raise and more security in her state job, the N&O reports.

RALEIGH, N.C. – North Carolina’s three candidates for governor all have backgrounds in education, and each of them says they would make efforts to attract more teachers to the state’s classrooms if they’re elected.

Democratic Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue, a public school teacher in the 1960s, says the state has to do whatever it takes to get good teachers into rural school systems, and that includes paying them a supplement to get them there.

Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory, the Republican nominee who received a teaching degree in college, would promote giving higher pay to teachers in high-demand subjects such as math and science.

Libertarian Mike Munger, a Duke University political science professor, said the state should do away with the bonus system entirely because it’s ineffective and replace it with a merit-based system.