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20 Dec 2011 14:18

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Politics: House turns down Senate’s payroll tax cut extension

  • 229-193 payroll tax cut voted down source
  • » Shot down, softly: The House voted today on the Senate’s bill to extend (temporarily, by two months) the payroll tax cut President Obama has been calling for; the bill also would have extended unemployment insurance. The bill failed, though not on an up-or-down vote — the House instead voted affirmatively (with 229 “yeas”) to disapprove of the bill, calling for the two houses of Congress to hold conference to hammer out changes. Problem is, the Senate is out of session for the year, and Majority Leader Harry Reid has no intention of reconvening: “My House colleagues should be clear on what their vote means today… in ten days, 160 million middle class Americans will see a tax increase, over two million Americans will begin losing their unemployment benefits, and millions of senior citizens on Medicare could find it harder to receive treatment from physicians.” Seven Republicans joined Democrats in opposition.

13 Dec 2011 20:39

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Politics: House passes payroll tax-cut bill … with a Keystone-shaped catch

  • If Sen. Reid wants to hold up the jobs bill, he will go on Santa’s naughty list.
  • Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) • Offering a somewhat … uh, interesting take on the House’s passage of a payroll tax cut, which Republicans pushed through with a fairly large caveat — it would speed up the process of approving the Keystone XL pipeline, which was delayed until 2013 to give some time to examine environmental issues brought up by critics. The bill is expected to die in the Senate, and even if it weren’t, Obama would most likely veto it. The divided Congress is under the gun to pass a payroll tax cut and a spending bill to fund the government beyond Friday. Sounds like a fun week, all. source