House Nixes Tax-Break Bill

Posted on Dec 20, 2011

Wikimedia Commons / U.S. House of Representatives

No dice: House Speaker John Boehner did his part to push back on the tax-break bill Tuesday.

Once again, folks, we have deadlock on Capitol Hill. Happy holidays! Although President Obama and the majority of the U.S. Senate hoped that the House of Representatives would cooperate and pass legislation that would extend unemployment benefits and a payroll tax break, that didn’t happen Tuesday. This apparently displeased the president, who made his opinion clear in person later that day.  —KA

AP via Google News:

“Now let’s be clear,” Obama said in a surprise appearance in the White House briefing room. “The bipartisan compromise that was reached on Saturday is the only viable way to prevent a tax hike on January 1st. The only one.”

Obama said failure to pass the Senate version of the payroll tax cut extension could endanger the U.S. economic recovery, which he described as “fragile but moving in the right direction.”

House Republicans controlling the chamber want instead immediate negotiations with the Senate on a year-long plan. But the Senate’s top Democrat on Tuesday again ruled out talks until the House passes the stopgap measure.

“President Obama needs to call on Senate Democrats to go back into session ... and resolve this bill as soon as possible,” said House Speaker Boehner, R-Ohio. “I need the president to help out.”

If Congress doesn’t break the stalemate and pass a bill by the end of the year, payroll taxes will go up by almost $20 a week for a worker making a $50,000 salary. Almost 2 million people could lose unemployment benefits as well, and doctors would bear big cuts in Medicare payments.

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