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Obama to GOP: Do not attach any other issues to payroll tax bill
President Barack Obama raised the threat of a veto Wednesday if Republicans try attaching controversial oil pipeline or other language to a bill renewing payroll tax cuts and unemployment coverage, intensifying their year-end partisan showdown.
Obama’s warning, which prompted an immediate and equally bellicose response from the GOP, signaled that there is no easy end in sight as the two sides maneuver over renewing tax reductions and jobless benefits that without congressional action expire January 1 just as the 2012 election year begins.
Top House Republicans are laboring to overcome conservative resistance to GOP legislation extending this year’s 2 percentage point reduction in the 6.2 percent Social Security payroll tax for another year.
Their bill would also renew benefits for the long-term unemployed, though for fewer than the current maximum of 99 weeks, according to Republicans who spoke on condition of anonymity. It would also impose new rules on unemployment programs, such as granting states waivers to use some funds to experiment with programs like job training, the Republicans said.
To lure votes, House GOP leaders have planned to add a provision easing the way for construction of the proposed Keystone XL oil pipeline from Canada to the Midwest, a plan that is backed by industry and unions but opposed by environmentalists.
“Any effort to try to tie Keystone to the payroll tax cut, I will reject,” Obama told reporters at the White House.
In an effort to nail down rank-and-file GOP support, party leaders have also discussed including provisions blocking some Obama administration pollution rules and paying for nearly half the roughly US$180 billion package by extending the current pay freeze on federal workers through 2015.
Without being specific, Obama added, “My warning is not just specific to Keystone. Efforts to tie a whole bunch of other issues to what’s something that they should be doing anyway will be rejected by me.”
Mike Steel, spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, fired back within minutes.
“We are working on a bill to stop a tax hike, protect Social Security, reform unemployment insurance and create jobs,” Steel said. “If President Obama threatens to veto it over a provision that creates American jobs, that’s a fight we’re ready to have.”
A 2 percent payroll tax cut would save US$1,000 for a family earning US$50,000 yearly.
House Republicans planned to meet Thursday morning in hopes of uniting behind a measure that the chamber could vote on next week.
