Keystone pipeline still a sticking point in payroll tax talks
AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite
Updated at 5:45 p.m ET
Congress is on track to pass a budget bill and avoid a government shutdown, but Republicans and Democrats are still horse trading over a bill to extend the payroll tax cut.
Leaders in the Senate have floated the idea of passing a short, two-month extension of the tax cut, but if that happens, House Republicans say they'll insist on keeping a controversial provision expediting the review of the Keystone XL oil pipeline.
"These rumors that are floating around here about a two-month extension, I'll just say this," Boehner said today. "If that bill comes over to us we will make changes to it, and I will guarantee you that the Keystone Pipeline will be in there when it goes back to the United States Senate."
Later on the Senate floor, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell also said he couldn't support a payroll tax cut extension without the pipeline provision.
"There's bipartisan support for this project, and we need to get it done. We need to get it done now," McConnell said. "Frankly, I will not be able to support a package that doesn't include the pipeline."
McConnell said the president shouldn't "let a few radical environmentalists stand in the way" of a job-creating project.
If the payroll tax cut isn't extended by January 1, 160 million Americans would see their Social Security payroll tax rate jump from 4.2 percent back to 6.2 percent.
The House passed a bill this week extending the tax cut, but it included a number of measures that Democrats object to. One main concern was the provision forcing President Obama to make a quick decision on the Keystone oil pipeline, which would run from Canada to Texas. Democrats also objected to the ways Republicans intended to pay for the tax cut extension.
Some members have reportedly brought up the possibility of passing a two-month extension while the parties work out their differences, but a senior aide for Boehner said the speaker wants a year extension, CBS News Capitol Hill producer Jill Jackson reports, and thinks there is plenty of time to resolve this before the end of the year.
Members of the House are expected to leave town for the weekend now that they have passed a $1 trillion budget bill to keep the government running. The Senate is expected to pass that bill Saturday. Boehner today noted that "this will mark for the second year in a row that we will spend less money on the operation of our government -- two consecutive years that we've cut spending."
The House is expected to return to Washington once the Senate passes a payroll tax cut bill that could pass in the House.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell today both said they were making progress in the negotiations.
"We're making really good progress on being able to handle the issues that everyone knows are outstanding," Reid said. "We're not there yet. But we're very very close."
Added McConnell, "The majority leader and I are making significant progress and reaching an agreement on a package that will have bipartisan support, I hope."
According to a senior Democratic aide, negotiations are ongoing, CBS News Capitol Hill producer John Nolen reports. Democrats have given up on paying for the bill with a surtax on millionaires, but lawmakers are still looking at curbing tax breaks that very wealthy Americans are eligible for.
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When you leave Washington for the weekend, do all of the American people a huge favor and DON'T COME BACK.!!
John Boehner is the primary cause for every damn bit of legislation that would help the average Americn improve or even save their lives for the last three years.
The article states Washington is still engaged in "horse trading"
oveder extending the pay-roll tax credit.
MR. BOEHNER: Americans people are "people"; not HORSES.!
Sitting on your "high horse" and having temper tantrums to get your way has caused nothing but turmoil, panic and grief.
I don't know what you're on, but you need to get off of it and stop making these delusional decisions that you think are winning you support.
You and the rest of the Republican thugs are just digging your own hole deeper and deeper every day.
My biggest regret at the moment is that we have to put up with you for another year.
Do us all a favor and RESIGN.!
"Regulation is Marxism"-Phil Gramm 1995
"America is a nation of whiners"-Phil Gramm Dec.2008
The high priest of deregulation...Phil Gramm.
I would pay big money to see Gramm's head on a stick outside the New York SEC building.
How's that oil export market working out so far for you guys? Hum?
How much export oil cash is in "your" pocket?
That's right people.This is a Republican idea.That means...
Assume your position bent over your kitchen table.
Another Repub idea...
Which, by the way, our founding fathers said WAS a legitimate option, even a VIOLENT revolution.
November 09, 2011
Fox News has claimed that TransCanada's proposed Keystone XL pipeline would create somewhere between 50,000 and a million jobs. In fact, even TransCanada acknowledges that the total jobs created would be far fewer, and an independent report has found that the project could actually destroy more jobs than it creates through higher fuel costs and environmental damage.
http://mediamatters.org/research/201111090012
TransCanada Said In 2010 That Keystone XL Pipeline "Is Expected To Create Over ... 13,000 New Jobs For American Workers." In a 2010 press release by TransCanada, the company funding the Keystone XL pipeline, touted their connection with various unions and claimed they would "create over seven million hours of labor and over 13,000 new jobs for American workers." From the press release:
TransCanada Corporation today is pleased to announce a Project Labor Agreement for a significant portion of U.S. construction of the proposed US$7 billion Keystone Gulf Coast Expansion Pipeline Project (Keystone XL). The agreement will provide TransCanada with a capable, well-trained and ready workforce in the U.S. to construct Keystone XL. During construction, the project is expected to create over seven million hours of labor and over 13,000 new jobs for American workers. [TransCanada, 9/14/10]
What makes misinformed fox/rush parrots like you, 'think' that those that live off-grid, are "tribal & beating on drums"?
Must you always appear so ignorant?
Again...as in the past,the Repubs only are in a hurry if it involves them holding you and your family,with pants down at your ankles,over your kitchen table.
The pipline would use union workers, that you repubs are against. You would rather they used illegals then American union workers, of course I'm sure you republicans would figure a way to keep union workers from working.