RightChange: House Republicans Cave On Payroll Holiday

President Obama’s $40 campaign against Republicans must have worked. The White House urged people to “share what a $40 paycheck means to them.” The President held a “Do-nothing Republican” bashing earlier. And Mitch McConnell demanded the House to pass the Senate bill. This was all apparently enough to make Speaker Boehner crack.

From the National Journal:

“House Republicans on Thursday crumpled under the weight of White House and public pressure and have agreed to pass a two-month extension of the payroll-tax cut, Republican and Democratic sources told National Journal.

The House made the move after Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., agreed to appoint conferees to a committee to resolve differences between the Senate's two-month, 2 percentage point, payroll-tax cut and the House's one-year alternative.

The House will pass the two-month extension with a technical correction to the language designed to minimize difficulties businesses might experience implementing the short-term, two-month tax cut extension.”

Emphasize the phrase “minimize difficulties.”  They are referring to the fact that two payroll system groups said that the Senate’s plan would: "create substantial problems, confusion, and costs affecting a significant percentage of U.S. employers and employees."  This is one of three reasons the Senate’s plan that House Republicans are now agreeing to is worthless.  Let’s recap.

First, it borrows from the Social Security trust fund, which is a terrible thing to do seeing as though entitlements are the biggest drivers of our debt.  Second, it is a two-month extension that businesses will most likely not be able to comply with at all. Third, it does absolutely nothing to stimulate the economy.  This was a battle that Republicans should have stuck to in the beginning, even if it meant making Keystone a separate battle once Congress reconvenes from their holiday recess.

We have a President in re-elect mode making it sound like middle class families are going to die unless Republicans pass a two month $83 payroll tax cut.  If $166 was so important to Senate Democrats, they would have stopped making Christmas cookies and gone back to Washington where they belong.  Shame on Senate Democrats. Shame on President Obama. And Shame on House Republicans.

Breaking News; Boehner just released this statement:

“Senator Reid and I have reached an agreement that will ensure taxes do not increase for working families on January 1 while ensuring that a complex new reporting burden is not unintentionally imposed on small business job creators. Under the terms of our agreement, a new bill will be approved by the House that reflects the bipartisan agreement in the Senate along with new language that allows job creators to process and withhold payroll taxation under the same accounting structure that is currently in place. The Senate will join the House in immediately appointing conferees, with instructions to reach agreement in the weeks ahead on a full-year payroll tax extension. We will ask the House and Senate to approve this agreement by unanimous consent before Christmas. I thank our Members – particularly those who have remained here in the Capitol with the holidays approaching – for their efforts to enact a full-year extension of the payroll tax cut for working families.”

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