Payroll tax cut bill stalled in the Senate
AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite
The Democratic-led Senate is sure to reject a House-passed, Republican bill to extend the payroll tax cut, and Senate leaders say they are eager to get the vote over with.
However, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell blocked a quick vote on the House GOP bill Wednesday morning, arguing the Senate has more pressing priorities to deal with first -- namely, keeping the government from shutting down.
"The most immediate concern at this point is... the federal funding expiring two days from now," McConnell said on the Senate floor today. "Let's deal first with the deadline that happens this Friday, two days from now. Fund the government through the rest of the fiscal year, and then turn immediately to the payroll tax extension that expires later in January."
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has said he wants to vote first on the payroll tax cut bill, which the House passed on Tuseday, to prove that Republicans have to compromise more on the issue. The measure would extend the payroll tax cut for 160 million workers for another year. It would also extend long-term unemployment benefits but with reforms that Democrats have protested, such as eventually shortening the number of weeks for which people can receive the benefits. Democrats also oppose a number of other parts of the bill, including a provision that would force a quick decision on a controversial oil pipeline.
The measure will surely fail in the Senate, and even if it passed, President Obama promised to veto it. Democrats have proposed their own version of the bill to extend the payroll tax cut, but Republicans oppose its plan to pay for it with higher taxes on people making more than $1 million a year.
"Republican leaders have spent weeks drumming up support for legislation they knew was dead on arrival in the senate," Reid said on the Senate floor today with respect to the House bill. "Now it's time to get this vote over with so real negotiations can begin to prevent a tax increase on 160 million middle-class Americans."
McConnell urged the Senate to pass the House bill, which he called "job-creating and job-saving." Still, he said the more pressing matter was the pending $1 trillion-plus budget bill to keep the government running. The federal government could shut down most of its operations if a new budget bill isn't passed by Friday.
Democrats want to work on the payroll tax cut extension first, to maximize their leverage in the negotiations. Reid suggested today that McConnell was stalling the vote "because Republican senators are kind of embarrassed or ashamed of what's in that bill."
Reid added that if the Senate doesn't complete work on the $1 trillion-plus spending bill by Friday, it can pass a short-term spending bill as it has many times before.
The White House, meanwhile, is emailing its supporters a video to drum up support for its version of the payroll tax cut extension.
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Ooooh. they are running for election.
Agreed, and give them the same benefits and vacation time as the average American and no extra perks like using the military hospitals and military aircraft for their junkets.
And Congress oversteps its bounds when it tries to legislate executive actions. They cannot grant permits in place of the entities that are set up for that purpose, nor assess the environmental risk - - that is part of execution.
Then in 2012 we form a second party for America to run against the RepubliDems Top 1% party.
I just heard a coment on the news that that the crooks in Washington have about 48 hours to pass a bill to keep the government "up and running".
The only thing these home-grown terrorists are uup for id trying to figure out how they are going to get themselves re-elected.
As far as "running is concerned; the only running they do is to get out of town when voters start applying a little heat to their do-nothing ***** in an effort to get them to do SOMETHING besides stall.
In a local paper today there was a cartoon that showeded a huge hole in the ground with dirt being shoveled out of it by Republicans.
Just goes to show you that a picture is worth a thousand words.!!
Congress, the Senate and the House are BROKEN, and continuing to play political games is ultimately going to destroy us completely.
Obama should insist that this whole bunch cannot leave the Capitol until they accomplish legislation that will be of benefit to middle class citizens.
ON THE OTHER HAND........If they are not in Washington ; they can't do any more damage.
It's just too bad we will have to deal with more of the same until November 2012.
I was reading the Democrats are ready to make an announcement in Wisconsin at 12PM tomorrow. If they announce what I think they're going to, I would say a pay for performance bonus contribution is in order.