News
Extend the payroll tax cut for a full year – Obama urges senate
Democrats and Obama sought to pay for the additional payroll tax cuts by placing a surcharge on individuals and couples with US$1 million or more in income but Republicans opposed the tax increases. The additional costs would be covered by raising fees on new mortgages backed by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac or the Federal Housing Administration.
Obama said his preference, “and the preference of most Americans, is that we ask the wealthiest few Americans to pay their fair share and corporations to do without special taxpayer subsidies to cover some of the costs. But I think that it’s important for us to get it done.”
As a condition for GOP support of the payroll tax measure, Obama had to agree to accelerate a decision on a proposed a Canada-to-Texas oil pipeline that promises thousands of jobs.
Obama made no reference to the pipeline in his remarks.
Senior administration officials said the Republican attempts to speed up the decision on the pipeline would ultimately undermine their work to get the project built quickly because the State Department has said an expedited process would not give them enough time to conduct a proper review.
The most likely outcome, they said, is that the project would not go forward next spring. The officials only spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the deliberations.
The House is expected to consider the payroll tax cut measure early next week. Obama said he was hopeful “we’re going to be able to make sure that when everybody gets back next year we extend this further, all the way to the end of the year.”
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press.
