House passes payroll tax cut extension

Speaker of the House John Boehner, R-Ohio, speaks to reporters at the Capitol in Washington, Monday, Dec. 12, 2011.

/ AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite

Updated: 7:14 p.m. ET

The House of Representatives on Tuesday passed legislation extending the payroll tax cut, voting 234 to 193 in favor of the bill.

Ten Democrats voted for the bill, and 14 Republicans voted against it.

Earlier Tuesday, President Obama threatened to veto the bill due to objections over how House Republicans chose to pay for the $180 billion legislation.

The Republican-sponsored legislation would extend the payroll tax cut for 160 million workers for another year. It would also extend long-term unemployment benefits -- though with reforms that Democrats have protested -- and prevent a cut in Medicare payments to doctors.

Despite a mutual consensus in favor of a payroll tax cut extension, Republicans and Democrats have sparred for weeks over the appropriate way to pay for the legislation.

The House Republicans' bill does so by extending the current federal worker pay freeze one more year, requiring federal workers to contribute more to their pensions, and charging higher insurance rates for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac mortgages. It would also prevent millionaires from collecting unemployment benefits or food stamps and increase Medicare Part B and D premiums for high income earners.

Democrats have proposed paying for the extension by raising taxes on Americans earning more than $1 million a year.

The two parties have also butted heads over Republican efforts to streamline the decision-making process on the controversial Keystone XL oil pipeline from Canada to Texas as part of the measure.

In debate on the House floor Tuesday evening, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi accused Republicans of "trying to change the subject" by including the measure , which environmental activists vehemently oppose.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, meanwhile, accused Democrats of letting political interests get in the way of what he describes as "the biggest shovel-ready project in America."

"Here's a project that would create tens of thousands of jobs right away, wouldn't cost the taxpayers a dime to build, would reduce the share of energy that we import from unfriendly countries overseas, and which everybody from the labor unions to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce says they support because it would create tens of thousands of jobs right away," he said in a Tuesday statement. "But the presidential campaign is getting in the way, to the point that the Senate Majority Leader now says he's willing to hold up a bipartisan bill to fund our troops, border security and other federal responsibilities, rather than let the President decide if this pipeline project should move forward."

In a statement following the House vote Tuesday evening, the White House reiterated its call for Congress to "do its job" and "stop the tax hike" that will impact 160 million Americans in the absence of a deal.

"This is not a time for Washington Republicans to score political points against the President," read a statement from the office of the White House Press Secretary. "It's not a time to refight old ideological battles. And it's not a time to break last summer's bipartisan agreement and hurt the middle class by cutting things like education, clean energy, and veterans' programs without asking the wealthiest Americans to pay their fair share."

Senate Democrats have suggested that the House bill will be dead on arrival in that chamber, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid says he recently told House Speaker John Boehner not to bother sending him legislation that would not get any Democratic support.

"I said there's no need to send us something over here that can't get Democratic votes and what you have now, what you have the rule on, isn't going to pass over here," he told Boehner Monday, according to the Hill.

[RickCain4150]

Neither side will cut the outrageous military budget, which is 50% of tax receipts.

The war machine must be funded, and the kickbacks and contributions/rewards to senators and congressmen will continue.

[TheTrue2]

Republicans,again, are doing an inferior job as always in Congress. They don't want to pass regulations to control the use of boilers in an environmentally safe way and want to interfere with the approval process of a project that involves a foreign country wanting to engage in commerce with us... all while adhering to the Republican model which is defending the interest of the privilege class in our society at the expense of the working man. The American jobs Act proposed by the Administration earlier this year should have passed as it was drafted...by Congress not passing this bill, it made necessary for the democrats to try to pass it piece meal. This openned the door for Republicans to do what they do best, interfere with bills that help the working man by asking the privilege minority to sacrify their wealth for a fellow citizen.

[NewPolemic]

So much for the party that claims to protect personal property rights. Taking assests from one entity to give to another for the greater good sounds a lot more like Socials than Republicans. I guess when oil is involved everyone is a Socialist.

[CharlieVer]

Millionaires getting food stamps? Seriously? That happens? That's a serious enough problem to warrant putting it in the bill?

[AmericanMe1]

The ball is now in Obama's and the Senate's court.
Let's watch them deliberately miss or drop the ball and then smash their racket like John McEnroe. The Senate Dems sure didn't have a problem passing the Stimulus Package that was suppose to create jobs. Why balk at the Pipeline now?
Obama would sign it if he thought it would get him re-elected. He's like a frog on a hot skillet and doesn't know which way to jump.

[CharlieVer]

@GOPterror: The problem with this bill is that, once again, the rich go unscathed while the working class pay. Adding insurance fees to mortgages will hurt the average person looking to buy a house, freezing pay for federal workers who have already suffered a prolonged freeze, while not asking for one dime from millionaires. The pipeline has nothing to do with it; that's a separate issue not in this bil.

[naturaltwo]

You and yours are the problem You and yours got 4400 Americans butchered in Iraq. Time for you to get out of America. You lost your right to live here.

[baileyccc]

The Republicans in Congress have a "death wish" for their failing party and they will get what they deserve November 2012.

[naturaltwo]

WooHoo! You said it.

[dzaffina]

When state legislators across the nation introduce similar or identical bills designed to boost corporate power and profits, reduce workers rights, limit corporate accountability for pollution, or restrict voting by minorities, odds are good that the legislation was not written by a state lawmaker but by corporate lobbyists working through the American Legislative Exchange Council. ALEC is a one-stop shop for corporations looking to identify friendly state legislators and work with them to get special-interest legislation introduced. It's win-win for corporations, their lobbyists, and right-wing legislators. But the big losers are citizens whose rights and interests are sold off to the highest bidder.

Americans are increasingly recognizing and speaking out against the disproportionate power of corporations in shaping public policy and steering politicians, and ALEC is a prime example of how Corporate America is able to buy even more power and clout in government. Rather than serve the public interest, ALEC champions the agenda of corporations which are willing to pay for access to legislators and the opportunity to write their very own legislation. It helps surrogates and lobbyists for corporations draft and promote bills which gut environmental laws, create a regressive tax system, eliminate workers' rights, undermine universal and affordable health care, privatize public education, and chip away at voting rights. It's no wonder that so many big corporations view ALEC as a wise investment. ALEC represents an alarming risk to the credibility of the political process and threatens to greatly diminish the confidence and influence ordinary people have in government.

[dzaffina]

the republicans holding the middleclass tax payers and unemployed americans hostage again. has it been a year already. this year its big oil,last year it was tax cuts for the corporate wealthy. as a working middleclass american,i'm starting to think the republicans don't represent me.

[slatep]

Mitch McConnell needs to review the pipeline proposal.

Any oil that flows through this pipeline will not benefit the US in any way, because all the oil that flows through it is bound for China.

This also does not mention the possible enormous damage this could do to the environment should an accident occur.

This is just more of the same blackmailing tactics the Republicans have been using to avoid any possibility of a tax increase on the wealthy, big business, banks and Wall Street.

Obviously; the Republicans are living in a dream world where they are unable to hear the protests of American voters about their game-playing with our lives.

I heard on CNN today that there is a possibility the 2012 election will be a referendum election.

If so, the politicians will have no one to blame but themselves.

[Jduckman5]

Actually this oil that will be moved through this pipeline will be processed in Port Arthur and in Houston. A refinery in Port Arthur is already gearing up to run that crude. So yes the U.S. will benefit from this greatly.

[rationall7]

I seriously doubt that labor unions have agreed to the pipeline project because their training and skill is not welcomed until the project runs into trouble caused by the non-union selection by the contractors to save money. You get what you pay for. Working people and unions don't fit into the ropublican vocabulary unless it is for exploitation.

"Here's a project that would create tens of thousands of jobs right away, wouldn't cost the taxpayers a dime to build, would reduce the share of energy that we import from unfriendly countries overseas, and which everybody from the labor unions to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce says they support because it would create tens of thousands of jobs right away,"