Reports: House GOP Agrees To Two-Month Payroll Tax Cut Extension
It looks as though the Payroll Tax Cut Debate is reaching its expected conclusion. At least two media outlests are reporting that Speaker Boehner has agreed to sign on to the two-month extension of the Payroll Tax Cut passed by the Senate, leaving the issue of the one year extension to be dealt with in January.
National Journal reports that “House Republicans Agree To Payroll Deal”
House Republicans on Thursday crumpled under the weight of White House and public pressure and have agreed to pass a two-month extension of the 2 percent payroll-tax cut, Republican and Democratic sources told National Journal.
The House made the move after Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., agreed to appoint conferees to a committee to resolve differences between the Senate’s two-month payroll-tax cut and the House’s one-year alternative.
The House will pass the two-month extension with a technical correction to the language designed to minimize difficulties businesses might experience implementing the short-term, two-month tax cut extension.
Talking Points Memo confirms the story, and CNN is reporting on the air the same deal and saying that Boehner will be holding a conference call with the GOP caucus at 5;00pm today. it’s possible that this could still go south, but it seems unlikely at this point. Once Mitch McConnell sided with Obama and Reid, the House GOP really had no choice.
Update: Speaker Boehner is about to hold a press conference, but his office released this statement shortly after 5:30pm:
House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) today issued the following statement:
“Senator Reid and I have reached an agreement that will ensure taxes do not increase for working families on January 1 while ensuring that a complex new reporting burden is not unintentionally imposed on small business job creators. Under the terms of our agreement, a new bill will be approved by the House that reflects the bipartisan agreement in the Senate along with new language that allows job creators to process and withhold payroll taxation under the same accounting structure that is currently in place. The Senate will join the House in immediately appointing conferees, with instructions to reach agreement in the weeks ahead on a full-year payroll tax extension. We will ask the House and Senate to approve this agreement by unanimous consent before Christmas. I thank our Members – particularly those who have remained here in the Capitol with the holidays approaching – for their efforts to enact a full-year extension of the payroll tax cut for working families.”
And so, it is done.
NOW ISN’T EVERYTHING BETTER WHEN WE ALL PLAY NICE TOGETHER?
In his press conference, Boehner will insist that the House Republicans have been fighting for this two month extension all along, and that it was the Democrats who were blocking them.
Who’s gonna pay for this mess? Boehner or Cantor?
Boehner’s giving a press conference? Bring the Kleenex.
Big woop…..
Bipartisanism at its finest.
Ah hah hah hah. Excellent. Let’s hope the Republicans play the game all over again in two months.
@michael reynolds:
Right on. I’m so sick of hearing our kids and grandkids whining about how they’re paying into social security, and how they’re never going to get it back because it’s not being adequately funded, and will be bankrupt by the time they retire. Selfish little brats!
@Miscreant:
If “our kids” are saying that, they’re wrong. SS requires relatively minor fixes. The current tax break could easily be covered by the proposed millionaire’s tax.
Now whine on behalf of millionaires and tell me of their sad, sad plight.
@G.A.Phillips:
Big whup ass, you mean.
Tell them to quite watching Fox and get informed.
@michael reynolds:
If you honestly believe that a $7 Trillion shortfall in social security over the next 75 years can be solved with “minor fixes”… (And we’re not exactly off to a smashing start with this new proposal that will underfund it even more.)
And why do people always have to hate on “millionaires and billionaires”? I think it’s great that Nancy Pelosi and George Soros can make millions profiting from insider trading, and store it all in hidden offshore accounts and never pay taxes on it, while pretending to care about poor people! Doesn’t everybody?