December 23, 2011 in Nation/World

House passes payroll tax cut for Obama’s signature

Associated Press

WASHINGTON — Congress today approved a two-month renewal of payroll tax cuts for 160 million workers and unemployment benefits for millions, handing President Barack Obama a convincing victory for his jobs agenda.

Back-to-back voice vote approvals of the measure by the Senate and House capped a retreat by House Republicans who had insisted that a full-year bill was the only way to prevent an immediate tax increase on Jan. 1.

The measure passed despite lingering grumbling from tea party Republicans. It buys time for negotiations early next year on how to finance a year-long extension of the 2 percentage point Social Security payroll tax cut.

It will keep in place a salary boost of about $20 a week for an average worker making $50,000 a year and prevent almost 2 million unemployed people from losing jobless benefits averaging $300 a week.

Passage in the House — Friday’s action on the measure took less than a minute — capped a swift retreat by House Republicans. Their move to force a holiday season confrontation with Obama and Senate Democrats had threatened to hit 160 million workers with a tax increase on Jan. 1. But it backfired badly.

Just 24 hours earlier, House leaders had insisted the only way to prevent that tax hike and a phase-out of jobless benefits for people out of work for more than six months was to pass a full-year renewal.

Those goals had been embraced by virtually every lawmaker in the House and Senate but had been derailed in a quarrel over demands by House Republicans for immediate negotiations on a long-term extension bill. Senate leaders of both parties had tried to barter such an agreement among themselves a week ago but failed, instead agreeing upon a 60-day measure to buy time for talks next year.

Thursday’s decision by House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, to cave in to the Senate came after days of criticism from Obama and Democrats. But perhaps more tellingly, GOP stalwarts including strategist Karl Rove and the Wall Street Journal editorial board warned that if the tax cuts were allowed to expire, Republicans would take a political beating that would harm efforts to unseat Obama next year.

House GOP arguments about the legislative process and what the “uncertainty” of a two-month extension would mean for businesses were unpersuasive, and Obama took the offensive.

Today’s House and Senate sessions were remarkable. Both chambers had essentially recessed for the holidays but leaders in both parties orchestrated passage of the short-term agreement under debate rules that would allow any individual member of Congress to derail the pact, at least for a time. None did.

The developments were a clear win for Obama. The payroll tax cut was the centerpiece of his three-month, campaign-style drive for jobs legislation that seems to have contributed to an uptick in his poll numbers — and taken a toll on those of congressional Republicans.

13 comments on this story so far. Add yours!

MrBloggy on December 23 at 8:22 a.m.
Who’s your daddy, John Boehner and teabag republicans?
OBAMA IS
OBAMA IS YOUR DADDY
Scoutster on December 23 at 8:42 a.m.
I feel so uncertain.
soccermomsusie on December 23 at 8:51 a.m.
This was our plan all along. Hah! Way to fall into our trap Obamatron 2000!
Yes, we Republicans will continue to make the middle class and poor pay for the wealthy and corporations (Our Betters), but our next machination can wait for the new year.
You know what would make my G and G go down smoother this morning? A CONSTITUTIONAL FLAG BURNING BAN AMENDMENT, ASAP!!! ABORTION BAN?? WAR ON WAR ON CHRISTMAS SORTIE?!? TERRY SCHIAVO REANIMATION? MICHELLE OBAMA’S BOOTY!?! OBAMA CRACK GANGSTA? OBAMACARE?! OBAMONOMICS!? 99% DON”T SHOWER!?! I WANT MY COUNTRY BACK?!?! TRIM THE FAT! FILL THE POTHOLES!!! CUT THE TAXES!?! DEREG00101LATE, COMP101A01CT FL0000101URESCENT BULB010S!1!? B00111001001101KE LA10101NES111?1 MC101010GR00001110ATH111000010001 0011001 01110
HEAR OUR VOICE!!!
schleufer on December 23 at 8:53 a.m.
and boehner stood alone. no cathy rogers standing behind him. i guess when you use some one for a prop why should they show up when you are having a bad day.
i wonder if boehner and his bunch are ever going to get around to dealing with brian bairds bill addressing their legalized insider trading.
http://www.columbian.com/news/2011/nov/15/herrera-beutler-signs-insider-trading-bill/
when boehner was asked about this on 60 minutes he said something like he hadnt made trades for years. more than one could be 2 years and he didnt say if he had ever or is someone doing anything for him. this isnt transparency.
The_Seer on December 23 at 9:43 a.m.
I thought the conservative meme of cutting taxes creates MORE tax revenue was always true. Let’s just get rid of the payroll tax altogether, shouldn’t that save Social Security forever? With tax collections at decades low levels, shouldn’t every level of government be awash in funding? Why isn’t this working like it’s supposed to?
I said last year it was a bad idea to cut the payroll tax and I’ll say it again. It makes absolutely no sense to defund an already ailing social safety net. The payroll tax cut helps businesses more than individuals and another example of why Obama is anything but a socialist.
I can’t believe most voters support cutting the payroll tax. I guess since they didn’t have to pay for wars, Medicare Part D, et.al. they aren’t too concerned about paying for their golden years either.
What about the grandchildren and their children? Are they “on their own” now?
Bruce (aka thatoneguy) on December 23 at 9:52 a.m.
Sometimes the news just gives me a bainer…
Seriously though Seer, I don’t think (although of course I don’t know) that people generally support cutting this tax forever. I certainly don’t. But right now would not be a good time to re-implement it, for me anyway. Think of it something like this: money gets tight, so you cut from Premium Cable to Basic Cable, thinking when you have the money to spare, you’ll upgrade again*. It would be premature to upgrade the moment it looks like you may have the money in 6 months. With these preliminary signs of recovery that the economy is showing lately, it’s reasonable to be optimistic but it would be dumb to act like everything is suddenly fine again.
*(I do understand that cable TV is a luxury and Social Security is not.)
Spokanewaste on December 23 at 1:10 p.m.
The house republicans really screwed up. Hopefully we didn’t just hand the election to President Obama.
liberal_in_right_wing_land on December 23 at 1:18 p.m.
Spokanewaste you guys handed the election to Obama when you picked people like Romney, Gingrich, Perry, Cain, Santorum, Bachmann, Paul, and even tried getting Trump in their also, to run against Obama.
Thank you!
kma on December 23 at 2:09 p.m.
soccermomsusie,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
Wow, are you ok? soccermomsusie?
Whose taxes? The rich?
Soccermomsusie……..you made not one word of logic but that is you right, the right, the right…………………
as if telling our First Lady that she has a big butt from one of your idiot congressman. He is the BIG FAT PIG, guess he hates seeing someone of color looking better than his fat arse!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!. Aren’t you proud of that you little soccermom. You and your soccermom mentality are what is wrong with this nation little girl.
greenlibertarian on December 23 at 2:24 p.m.
Wonder what Bohner had to promise the tea baggers for their silence.
meadman on December 23 at 9:52 p.m.
kma – you obviously miss the point… Soccermom made perfect sense to me….. And probably to most Republicans also
Pigrobin on December 23 at 10:45 p.m.
We can only hope this lousy “tax cut” will be defeated in two months. Of course, those who think SS should be a welfare program are cheering this debacle. This was a bad deal a year ago and gets worse with every political power play. Who are we kidding with this “tax cut.” Bye, Bye social security…we’ve screwed our grandchildren for a few bucks a month. Merry Christmas you political hacks.
99%Progressive on December 24 at 9:19 a.m.
Soccarmomsusie you are soooo funny…
You have faked out the GOP DODO goo dullards yet again….You also took out one or two of our own however,.soulmister….I mean soulsister
KMA, whose name must mean KEEP ME ASLEEP could not be more clueless to who and what you really are Soccarmomsusie!
I think KMA should be let in on our secret…you know the one that you are really a greenlib, progressive, occupier pretending to be a God Fearing, GOP loving, lobotomized soccarmom????
You write what we liberals think the GOP would say if we weren’t watching… or is it what we would like to believe the GOP believes…..I forget……
Anyway, sometimes we diehard liberals have way less volume than we have mass in our heads to divide….take MEADMAN for example….
Soccarmomsusie you are soooo funny…
Beer-hurl on her Rolls-Royce