posted
First Thoughts: Three reasons the House GOP won't win this fight,payroll tax cut.
Three reasons why the House GOP isn’t going to win the payroll tax-cut fight… Here’s another reason: WSJ editorial page tells House GOP to raise the white flag… What does the White House do next?…
By NBC’s Chuck Todd, Mark Murray, Domenico Montanaro, and Brooke Brower
*** Three reasons why the House GOP won’t win this fight: Ten days before the payroll tax-cut is set to expire, Washington is now locked in a political stalemate. House Republicans are demanding that the Senate come back from its holiday break to participate in a conference committee, while Democrats are arguing that the House GOP simply pass the already-approved Senate legislation to extend the tax cut for another two months before hammering out a longer-term agreement. But there are three reasons why the House GOP probably won’t win this fight, PR-wise, especially if the tax cut expires. Reason #1: House Republicans allowed the Senate to break for the Christmas holiday without explicit orders it would need to come back. In fact, Politico notes that the silence from Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is deafening. Reason #2: The Senate passed its legislation by a bipartisan 89-10 vote, raising the question whether a conference committee could produce a deal that could get 60-plus Senate votes. Reason #3: The House GOP didn’t allow an up-or-down vote on the Senate bill, suggesting that it could have passed if they did. Those three reasons will be hard for the House GOP to explain away if the tax cut expires after Dec. 31.
*** WSJ editorial page: Time to raise the white flag: And here’s a fourth reason: The conservative Wall Street Journal editorial page is already asking the House GOP to raise the white flag. “The GOP leaders have somehow managed the remarkable feat of being blamed for opposing a one-year extension of a tax holiday that they are surely going to pass. This is no easy double play. Republicans have also achieved the small miracle of letting Mr. Obama position himself as an election-year tax cutter.” The editorial page goes on to say, “At this stage, Republicans would do best to cut their losses and find a way to extend the payroll holiday quickly. Then go home and return in January with a united House-Senate strategy that forces Democrats to make specific policy choices that highlight the differences between the parties on spending, taxes and regulation.
*** What does the White House do next? Despite the PR advantages the White House has -- including the Wall Street Journal’s editorial above -- there’s a legitimate question it faces: What does it do next? While it might gain politically if the tax cut expires, the White House DOES WANT it to pass. So does President Obama call for Congress to return after Christmas, say on Dec. 27? And does he continue to postpone his own Christmas vacation? Meanwhile, a White House official tells NBC’s Kristen Welker that the White House yesterday called on Americans to add their voice to the payroll tax-cut debate. The message: “If Congress fails to extend the payroll tax cut, the typical family making $50,000 a year will have about $40 less to spend or save with each paycheck. Over the year, that adds up to about $1,000.”
-------------------- Wise men learn more from fools than fools from the wise.
IP: Logged |
House Republicans Cave on Payroll Tax Cuts Extension By JONATHAN KARL, JOHN PARKINSON and HUMA KHAN | ABC News – 10 hrs ago...
House Republicans Cave on Payroll Tax Cuts Extension (ABC News)
A muted House Speaker John Boehner announced today that Republicans have decided to accept a short-term extension of the payroll tax cut, preventing a hike in taxes just nine days before the tax break expires for 160 million Americans.
House GOP leaders appeared to be adopting a compromise suggested by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell to pass the two-month extension in exchange for the Senate appointing members to a conference committee, which will negotiate a longer-term solution. The proposal won a nod of approval from President Obama and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.
But Boehner was visibly unhappy with the deal.
"Kicking a can down the road for a couple of months does cause problems," he said at a news conference today.
House Republicans had originally wanted a one-year extension but faced mounting pressure from conservatives and their Senate counterparts to come to an agreement on the short-term deal.
"Sometimes it's politically difficult to do the right thing," Boehner said.
He admitted that the House Republicans' refusal to compromise on the short-term extension, which received backlash even from conservatives, politically "may not be the smartest thing in this world... but our members waged a good fight."
The deal entails a new bill with language protecting small businesses from a measure in the Senate bill that creates temporary new caps on the wages that are subject to payroll tax relief, a Republican aide said. Reid accepted the House Republicans' proposal late this afternoon.
The bill will be passed by unanimous consent, which would not require all the members to return for a vote.
Obama hailed the agreement and congratulated Congress members "for ending the partisan stalemate," but he also urged Congress to extend the payroll tax cut for the full year in 2012 "without drama or delay."
Earlier this afternoon, Obama assailed House Republicans for a "ridiculous Washington standoff" and stepped up pressure on them to pass a two-month extension bill that sailed through the Senate by a bipartisan vote.
"This isn't a typical Democrat versus Republican issue. This is an issue where an overwhelming number of people in both parties agree," the president said today. "How can we not get that done? Has this place become so dysfunctional that even when people agree to things, we can't do it? It doesn't make any sense."
The president, who delayed his vacation to Hawaii with his family because of the stalemate, was surrounded by individuals who wrote to the White House detailing how the end of the payroll tax break would affect their lives.
The White House pursued an aggressive campaign on social media to highlight the loss in benefits that millions of Americans will incur on Jan. 1 if Congress doesn't act. Americans, on average, would lose about $40 per paycheck if the tax cuts expire. On Wednesday, Obama himself personally took to Twitter asking Americans to share what that loss would mean to them.
"Forty dollars can make all the difference in the world," Obama said today, as he read out stories from Americans who had responded to his request. "Enough is enough. The people standing with me today cannot afford any more games."
Obama said more than 30,000 people have responded to the White House's "What 40 Dollars a Paycheck Means to American Families" campaign on Twitter, Facebook and whitehouse.gov.
House Republicans faced increasing pressure, even from their Senate counterparts, to find a compromise quickly. Outwardly, the House GOP leadership showed no outward sign of caving in, reiterating defiantly that they would not support the Senate bill.
But internally, even rank and file House Republicans were beginning to break away from Boehner and the GOP leadership's insistence that Congress approve a year-long deal to extend the payroll tax cut, instead urging the speaker to consider a short-term deal.
Rep. Sean Duffy, a freshman Republican from Wisconsin, today called on his leadership "to immediately bring up the Senate's two-month extension for an up or down vote."
"Middle class families deserve a Congress that will rise above the squabbling and ensure their taxes don't go up right after Christmas," Duffy wrote in a statement. "This is about preventing hardworking Wisconsin families from paying an extra $40 a week for the dysfunction in Washington, D.C."
Another House Republican freshman, Rep. Rick Crawford of Arkansas, wrote a letter to the speaker that asked for all options to be on the table as time runs short.
All week long, conservatives ranging from Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., to Karl Rove took shots at Boehner and the House GOP for holding out for a long-term extension.
"There's no doubt this hurts the Republican Party, and that bothers me a great deal, as a Republican," Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said on CBS News this morning, adding that he feels bad for American taxpayers who are "innocent bystanders caught in the crossfire."
"This is really tragic for the American people. And I would say that next November, no incumbent is safe, nor should they be," McCain said.
Senior Democrats, meanwhile, pounced on Republicans for not agreeing to the two-month extension.
"Republicans have been arguing about process and politics," House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer said today. "The stakes are too high to be arguing about politics and process. The Republican contention that the two-month compromise somehow is unworkable is simply untrue."
If the payroll tax cut was not extended, 160 million American workers would have seen a 2 percentage point raise in their taxes, starting Jan. 1, raising the overall tax burden to 6.2 percent. Three million people who are receiving long-term unemployment benefits would also have seen their benefits drop. The gridlock would also impact Medicare, which would likely lower reimbursements to doctors.
The payroll tax cuts, passed by George W. Bush's administrations are popular on both sides of the political aisle. Washington experienced a similar gridlock in 2010 when the time came to renew the cuts.
Meanwhile, 2012 Republican presidential contenders expressed mixed views on the payroll tax extension debate.
Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney on Wednesday skirted the question of whether he supported Boehner's decision to reject the Senate bill, only saying, "My own view is had I been president, I would have been working with the leaders in both parties to see if there's not a way to reach common ground. My assessment of the circumstances is that there is common ground to reach in this matter. This should have been dealt with some time ago."
Newt Gingrich, however, took a widely different approach. Going into what appeared to be Speaker mode, the former Speaker jumped to give his Republican counterparts in the House some advice.
"Incumbent presidents have enormous advantages. And I think what Republicans ought to do is what's right for America," Gingrich said. "They ought to do it calmly and pleasantly and happily."
In a not-so-veiled jab against Romney, Gingrich said today that a candidate running for president ought not to run away from the issue.
"There's a concept called leadership," he said. "We need real leaders who have the courage to say what they really think. This is a mess. Washington's a mess. ... Think about how this muddle looks around the world. We can't even pass a tax cut?"
Conservatives had lashed out at House Republicans for creating a "fiasco" that put the party in a negative light and virtually hands over the win to Obama and Democrats.
"The GOP leaders have somehow managed the remarkable feat of being blamed for opposing a one-year extension of a tax holiday that they are surely going to pass. This is no easy double play," the Wall Street Journal stated in an editorial Wednesday. "Republicans have also achieved the small miracle of letting Mr. Obama position himself as an election-year tax cutter, although he's spent most of his presidency promoting tax increases and he would hit the economy with one of the largest tax increases ever in 2013. This should be impossible."
In an election year, a deadlock such as this could have significant negative consequences.
"Through all this analysis of the fiasco, there is a sense of doom for the Republican House. They have gone out on an ice floe with no obvious way back to shore," wrote conservative radio talk show host John Batchelor. "There is a strong possibility that President Obama will nurse the grievance against the Republican Party, and the Tea Party particularly, until the State of the Union."
ABC News'
-------------------- Wise men learn more from fools than fools from the wise.
IP: Logged |
posted
just remeber that we are borrowing this money from our social security budget.
i for one think that we all need to pay a little more in taxes.
if we wer to raise taxes by 1% per year and lower our spending by 1% per year, we could get a balanced budget in 5-6 years.. that would still not pay off the money we have already borrowed.
-------------------- Don't envy the happiness of those who live in a fool's paradise.
IP: Logged |
posted
Great, so this same argument is coming up in two months. Another round of bickering. Great job.
I should be able to opt out of this crap. FICA, SS, etc. I dont want SS when I am old...I doubt its even there by that time. SS is paltry to me, some...in my opinion you should plan on savings to cover you. Thats why I dont buy life insurance. You should have built up enough assets that life insurance is not needed. I get these life insurance guys trying to sell me on this and that, its all hot air to me. BTW, $40 every two weeks? With the debt this country now has, how much we borrow, inflation, etc 40 bucks doesnt get you much. I went to burger king today for a tasty heart attack in a bag while i was on the road for work. the total was 9 bucks and some change...for a medium combo meal. I remember not that long ago combo meals were $3.99 and the high end was $4.99. The costs of goods and services has going up rapidly.
You got to love the sob stories the dems play on. Oh that $40 bucks will heat my home for three days...thank you Obama for heating my home. Give me a break. Who voted these crooks in? These establishment Democrats and Republicans. The ones in for 20-30 years. The ones who demand rank and file for up and down votes. How did we get to this point.
-------------------- It isn't so much that liberals are ignorant. It's just that they know so many things that aren't so.
IP: Logged |
cash, the whole issue here is that too many people cannot get by without it... you don't want to live in society where 50% of the people are poverty stricken at 65 and unable to work...
The costs of goods and services has going up rapidly.
yes, but you can thanke the commoditites traders for that. the Enron *******s went into the broader market and have made it total mess.
there's no shortages of anything not even oil, yet the prices have been going up fast for over five years.
housing was a "bubble", this too is a bubble.
-------------------- Don't envy the happiness of those who live in a fool's paradise.
IP: Logged |
quote:Originally posted by glassman: I dont want SS when I am old...
cash, the whole issue here is that too many people cannot get by without it... you don't want to live in society where 50% of the people are poverty stricken at 65 and unable to work...
The costs of goods and services has going up rapidly.
yes, but you can thanke the commoditites traders for that. the Enron *******s went into the broader market and have made it total mess.
there's no shortages of anything not even oil, yet the prices have been going up fast for over five years.
housing was a "bubble", this too is a bubble.
Like I said back in two months for another round of B.S. and petty championing of $40 dollar "tax breaks". WHY would they not do this for a whole year again? Isnt that what Obama wanted in the first place?
You got to love how unions are siding with Democrats and Republicans on the Keystone pipeline which would create thousands of REAL jobs (not imaginary ones this administration likes), and also help curb speculation on the global markets.
You got this core of whining and crying leftists who if they could would shut down domestic oil production in a heartbeat.
IP: Logged |
UBBFriend: Email this page to someone!
Printer-friendly view of this topic
