President Obama on February 22 signed the Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2012 (HR 3630). The new law extends through December 2012 a reduction in employment tax rates from 6.2 percent to 4.2 percent for employees and the self-employed, scaled back unemployment benefits from 93 weeks to 63 weeks in most states, and retention of the current Medicare reimbursement to physicians that otherwise would face a 27-percent reduction. The president lobbied hard for passage of the bill, stressing that the payroll tax cut extension would prevent a tax increase on 160-million working Americans and would save the average household approximately $40 per paycheck.