E-mail updates
Follow on Twitter
Subscribe to RSSSpeaker John Boehner explains the House decision to postpone the vote on the Senate's version of the two month extension of the payroll tax cut.
The stalemate over how and whether to extend an expiring payroll tax cut will drag into Tuesday after House Republicans delayed a planned vote to reject a Senate bill to extend the tax holiday for two months.
House Republican leaders emerged following a meeting with rank-and-file members to say that the House would take up their votes on Tuesday. Lawmakers had planned to vote around 6:30 p.m. ET on Monday evening, but the 6 p.m. meeting of GOP lawmakers lasted longer than expected, over two hours.
Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) said that the House Rules Committee, which sets the parameters for votes in the House, would meet tonight to set the stage for tomorrow's series of votes. Those Tuesday votes would include a measure to reject the Senate's two month extension, and instead instruct lawmakers to meet in a conference -- the formal process of resolving differences with legislation in the Senate.
"Our members do not want to just punt and do a two-month, short-term fix where we have to come back and do this again," House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) told reporters at the Capitol.
House Republicans prefer legislation to extend the expiring tax cut by a whole year, and produced legislation to that effect. But Democrats in the Senate rejected that proposal because of some of the cuts used to offset the cost of the bill, which also includes an extension of unemployment insurance.
The House had been expected to vote early Tuesday morning after the preliminary vote was delayed. That plan was nixed, apparently with some political optics in mind.
"We also said we didn't like the idea of doing things in the dead of the night," House GOP Whip Kevin McCarthy (CA) said.
If the House does manage to follow through on its promise to reject the Senate-passed bill, that move would do little to ostensibly advance any final agreement on payroll taxes. Democrats spent most of Monday explaining that they would not consider any yearlong extension until the House had passed the stopgap tax cut.
"I will not re-open negotiations until the House follows through and passes this agreement that was negotiated by Republican leaders, and supported by 90 percent of the Senate," Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) said this afternoon in a statement.
They were joined by a small group of Senate Republicans who publicly urged their House counterparts to approve the two-month extension. The tax cut is set to expire on Dec. 31, meaning payroll taxes would go up on Jan. 1 barring some sort of deal.
Boehner downplayed any notion of discord among Republicans, refusing to say whether Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell (KY) had erred in expecting the House to pass the agreement McConnell had reached with Reid.
"The Senate did their job. They produced a bill," Boehner said. "And the House disagrees with it."
Leave a Comment:
Yeah Blame the Republicans everyone already said they can not enforce a two month tax deal. We sent them to do a job - do they not understand a deadline. Hold their paychecks until they reach a year agreement and ground Air Force One and the Ugly Bus as well.
Like I said before, the Reps/Tea Party are mad that the Senate didn't take the money away from the Health Care law. That has mad a whole lot of Tea Party people in the House mad as hell. Reps are not in charge of themselves. Rush Limbaugh and Grover Norquist are the real leaders. Norquist has already said that the Reps can raise taxes on the middle class as that is not breaking his stupid pledge that Reps/Tea Party have signed. It only protects the rich.
Boehner I bet has been crying his eyes out as the Tea Party Reps in safe voting districts are making him look to be the bad guy in American's eyes. He made a deal and now has to back out of it.
Republican's need to remember the old saying ( watch what you wish for you might just get it ). They want deficit reduction, come January 1 2013 they will get $6.2 trillion worth of cuts. $1 trillion dollars they agreed on just to raise the debt. ceiling. The $1.2 trillion in automatic cuts the super committee couldn't agree on ($600 billion in defense cuts and $600 billion in non-discretionary spending cuts ) and the $4 trillion in Bush tax cuts that expire on that same day. That all totals to $6.2 trillion and President Obama doesn't have to do anything to get them. Obama played the Republican's like a real pro and they didn't even see it coming.
Congress has already passed over 40 bills and it is the senate democrat majoriety holding everything up! Democrats have not passed a budget in close to 1000 days even though they had ALL the power, yet they whine about not passing a piece of crap 2 month EMERGENCY extension when this should of been taken care of OVER 2 STINKING YEARS AGO!!! They could of done this without any republican help but they are so worried about keeping their power they just voted present! Kind of like their prophet hussain obama did in that LITTLE TIME he was in the senate!
You can tell Boehner has been drinking and crying all night. The Tea Party is gonna put up a candidate against him. Boehner made this deal with the other leaders and because the health care money is not in it for the Reps to take away, the Tea Party turned it down. Boehner should call their bluff and hope a up and down vote. Yet he went the other way and blame Senate and Pres Obama. Why didn't Bohner call out the Reps in the Senate. They help passed the bill.
Now Boehner is crying, pleading and begging for Pres Obama to help. Wow
I just don't understand how people can support the Republicans full well knowing your will be under the bus in 1 year or less. At least show some respect for your family's
@uaw
What are basing that on? If I were you I'd be really pissed off that I'm part of an organization that forcefully takes money from me and spends it on lavish trips disguised as "training" for your uaw leaders, reps, and stewards (maybe not always the stewards). They stay in posh hotels, eat well as a result of your hard work, get to bring their families to Disney or wherever the tourist trap is that's near their "training" areas. The higher ups in your organization get paid very, very well and you can't do a darn thing about it. If you want a job somewhere that is under the thumb of a union you've got to join the ranks and then even if you don't agree with their political choices (always democrat) your hard earned money will still be going to that campaign fund.
If I didn't know better it seems as if unions are nothing more than a mob-like activity. Hmmm, don't unions always bitch about corporate fat cats getting paid too much and taking lavish trips while the working people in those businesses don't get the same rewards? There is a difference though...corporations don't force their customers to buy their products or services, they make money via capitalist opportunity. Your union gets money from forcing it's members (many of which are non volunteer) to pay them part of their money. It's corrupt at best, it's organized crime at worst, and back in the day it was needed. It's not anymore and how anyone can support the unions and the democrats with their ruling class attitudes that keep the working class down while living lavishly themselves is something I just don't understand.
you have to be kidding for around 500 a year i am living a well funded fun life with plenty of money for my children ,retirement,health care goood wages.I would say i am blessed everyday i wake up. I feel sorry for you and your family i hope things get better for you
I don't care if it's 0.10 per year. It's still a mob principal and it's still completely hypocritical. Don't waste your fun filled life feeling sorry for me, my family is just fine. But the difference is that my children know that everyone is NOT equal when it comes to jobs and efforts put forth and they understand that good moral values, hard work and half a brain can pay off. Unlike the union theory that everyone who has a job keeps that job and gets paid the same as anyone else who's doing that job. I'm not some theorist...I've been plenty hands on in the union world and the union philosophy (whether you dig it or not) is massively controlling and flawed. But I don't feel sorry for you or your family. What's there to feel sorry about when someone will have their job tomorrow whether they deserve it or not? That's a great place to be...but again, horrible philosophy.
So sorry to hear that your kids have half a brain. Is there any way that this could be a hereditary condition?
Let me pose this question to the libs;
Your leaders say social security is a form of insurance...it's a fund that you are contributing to thats for your retirement benefit. They refuse to call it a tax in any way shape or form. Libs always go nuts if you call it a tax.
Here's the question; Why are they calling this a payroll tax cut then? Hhhhmmm? Answer me that. It's directly taking dollars from social security, you know, the fund that libs always say Republicans are trying to destroy. Yeah that thing. So if social security is not a tax in their eyes, why are you guys (the ones who vote for these disgusting human beings) letting them get away with calling it a payroll tax cut.
Come on now...give me some answers here, I'm just beside myself waiting to be enlightened.
Social Security is a social insurance program that is primarily funded through dedicated payroll taxes. Calling Social Security itself a tax is incorrect. That would be like calling the Federal Highway System a tax because it is partially funded by taxes on every gallon of gasoline.
Of course, government programs are paid for through taxes, duh.
It's a tax cut, because the Social Security is partly funded by the Employee Social Security tax. Cutting this tax from 6.1% to 3.1% for 1 year will mean that employees will not be paying about $1,000 in taxes, thus keeping that money to spend.
The plan for the legislation is that the cut would be fully paid for, so there will be no net loss of revenue to the Social Security fund and no adding to the deficit.
So, it would be a net tax cut for employees.
Re-Elect - I love the way libs play with words. The Social Security program is not a tax, but it is paid for by a Social Security Tax. I bet you have a whole new meaning for "is" also. To a lib, a fee is a tax if suggested by a Conservative, but a tax is not a tax if increased by a Lib. And I bet you are kicking yourself that you commended the Republicans in your post by using the tax lowering for a year like they wish to do, rather than 2 months like the obstructionists in the Senate and White House. Kudos to you.
If the rascally Republicans succeed in lowering the rate for 1 year, saving each person $1000, then they are taking money out of the Social Security program, thus starving Granny and Gradnpa, right? (Even though the Republican plan IS paid for and the Democrat plan is not) Isn't that how it will be spun in February when the Democrats come back and demand more? Why not use the plan that puts 30,000 people to work and pays for itself? Oh, that's right, it was proposed by the Evil Republicans, so good hearted Democrats can not, in any way shape or form, support it.
Yeah it's a program partly paid by the Employee Payroll Tax. Programs are paid by taxes in some form or another - all of them.
The President and the Democrats in Congress originally proposed a 1 year extension. It was the Republicans who rejected that bill, so the Senate responded with a bi-partisan (89-10) 2 month extension, keeping everything exactly the way it is now, so that the details of how the long-term bill would be paid for could be worked out later.
Since Boehner and the House Republicans rejected that, the Republican Party is now looking at 1) tax hike 2) taking a beating in the State of the Union address and 3) debating this again in the middle of the primaries.
The Democratic plan IS fully paid for, with no net loss to the SS fund and no addition to the deficit.
The CEO of TransCanada admitted that maybe 5,000 to 6,000 temporary jobs would be created if construction took 2 years.
http://mediamatters.org/research/201112080014
I love the way MS-DNC likes to report this. Republicans punt on vote. Republicans are the obstructionists. Republicans want to raise taxes. Truth would be nicer.
Yes, Republicans put off the vote until Tuesday, but it's the DEMOCRATS who wish to punt the issue, making a 2 month extension so they can go home, lie about how the saved America and come back in Jan and start deceiving the people again. Seems typical though of a party who NEVER issued a budget for the 4 years they ran the House from 06 -10, just continuing resolutions. It's the White House who wish to raise taxes, not just on the "1%", you know Democratic money men, but on every single American through their policies, fees and new mandatory programs. This tax cut that they are in favor of would be paid for under the Republican plan by building a pipeline, yet the Democrats wish to vote against it, leading me to wonder why?
A vote against the pipeline is a vote against 30,000 Union Jobs, you know Democratic supporters. By not paying for the tax cut, they are effectively bankrupting Social Security, you know Old folks a key Democratic demographic. Could their opposition be solely for political reasons not mentioned in the news (or censored by the White House)? Folks would know this if they listened to news not reported in the Lame Stream media or spread by liars in the White House/Press Corps (same basic thing).
Wake up America. You are being lied to by Reid, Pelosi, Schumer, Rangle, Frank, Obama and the rest. VOTE THE LIARS OUT IN 12.
April 29, 2009 -- which was, according to the Congressional Research Service and news sources, when the Senate passed a budget resolution for fiscal 2010.
For fiscal year 2003, the Senate, which was under Democratic control, failed to pass a budget resolution. On three other occasions -- fiscal years 1999, 2005 and 2007 -- the Senate and House failed to reconcile their different bills and pass a compromise measure. In those three cases, Republicans were in the majority in both chambers.
Since 1983, the GOP was in control of both houses of Congress in three of the four years that a budget resolution wasn’t approved.
http://www.politifact.com/ohio/statements/2011/jun/16/rob-portman/sen-rob-portman-chides-senate-democrats-not-passin/
TransCanada CEO Russ Girling "said Friday that the 13,000 figure was actually not a true job number, but actually accounted for 'one person, one year.'"
Girling said Friday that the 13,000 figure was "one person, one year," meaning that if the construction jobs lasted two years, the number of people employed in each of the two years would be 6,500. That brings the company's number closer to the State Department's; State says the project would create 5,000 to 6,000 construction jobs, a figure that was calculated by its contractor Cardno Entrix.
http://mediamatters.org/research/201112080014
Bob304573
You can not handle the truth!!!!!!!!!!!! The problem children are the tea baggers and republicans. They thought they could throw another tempter tantrum and get their way. Not this time, they will have to live with their decisions and behaviour. It would be nice if you were as loyal to America and Americans as you are the tea baggers and republicans.
Iam - At first, the president and the Senate wished the 1 year extension but could not get it they wanted so they wrote it (yes, re-elect, I was aware of this). Now the Republicans want a 1 year extension, funded by job growth and NOT a increase in a tax on a single section of the American people, and the President and his minions in the Senate are against this. Why? Because it does not fit their narrow political agenda of the minute.
And, Iam, I AM loyal to this country and her people. I have fought and bled for it, have you? I was in the Military when being in the Military wasn't cool. I was in when the Democrats continued to cut Military spending year after year, then demanded more and more out of us. Yes, I served under 6 different Presidents, from Ford to GW Bush, and this is by far the WORST Administration for the Military I have ever seen. (If you have never served, you have NO idea how the administration can effect the morale of the troops) Don't confuse blind obedience and parroting of political crap from a President with loyalty to the country. They did this in the 30's and 40's in Europe and see how well that worked out?
Insist that the top 1 percent is taxed to pay for the tax cut for the rest. Boerner is not a leader and will never be a leader. He and the rest of the brats can go home and enjoy their Christmas, but I am sure that the unemployed will not have a merry Christmas. Cut the pay and benefits for the Congress and Senate, most are millionaires. Insist on drug tests for them daily!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Where's some jobs legislation that they promised was a priority?
Worthless speaker and worthless filibuster-senate.