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Obama to GOP: Do not attach any other issues to payroll tax bill
Boehner’s goal is to win the 218 House votes needed for passage from the chamber’s 242 Republicans, no easy task in a year in which several dozen conservative and tea party Republicans have not hesitated to oppose party leaders. That is important because it lets them avoid compromising with Democrats until the measure reaches the Democratic-led Senate.
Some conservatives were continuing to show resistance to the payroll tax package this week.
“It spends too much and it doesn’t cut enough,” said Rep. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz.
“The speaker’s challenge is as it has been all year,” said Rep. Steven LaTourette, R-Ohio, who is close to Boehner. “You’ve got 42 people, 48 people who are not reluctant about leaving the reservation on some of these more difficult votes. So the math is to get to 218 and he’s working it and he’s working it hard.”
Across the Capitol, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., signaled flexibility in how to pay for extending the payroll tax cut.
His Senate Democratic bill would, as Obama has proposed, trim the payroll tax for 160 million workers to 3.1 percent next year, though it would not provide tax cuts for employers as well. To pay for it, Democrats would slap a 1.9 percent surtax on income exceeding US$1 million, a levy that most Republicans oppose, saying it would curb job creation.
Democrats have used that opposition to try painting Republicans as favoring the rich over the middle class.
But when asked by reporters whether he would accept spending cuts to pay for the bill, Reid only ruled out reductions in federal agency budgets, which have already been sliced twice this year.
“We’re ruling nothing out, okay?” Reid said, other than agency budget cuts.
Reid was still planning a showdown vote later this week on a Democratic version of the bill that was pre-ordained to fall to GOP opposition.
He also threatened to keep senators working through the Christmas holidays until legislation was on its way to Obama’s desk. Lawmakers have been hoping to quit town for the year by Friday Dec. 16, though that seems unlikely.
“Republican leaders have two options,” Reid said. “They can work with us to forge a compromise that will pass, or they can move even further to the right to appease the tea party, because that’s what this is all about.”
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press.
