By Janie Amaya
The top two Democrats in the House today accused Republicans of unfairly holding up a payroll tax cut extension for middle-class workers.
“We cannot go home for Christmas unless we pass this legislation,” said House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). “The clock is ticking,”
Pelosi urged Republicans to work with her party on continuing the tax cut through the end of next year.
“We’re always open to what they have to say. So far, we haven’t heard anything that even sounds like a serious attempt of bipartisan compromise.”
The former Speaker bristled at the notion that Republican leaders are unhappy with taxing the rich to offset the cost of keeping the tax cut alive.
“Republicans never want to pay for the tax cut for the wealthiest people in our country. Doesn’t that strike you as funny? For the middle income tax cut, it has to be paid for. Tax cuts for the wealthy, we don’t pay for that.”
Pelosi said that savings from the winding down of the “OCO,” or Overseas Contingency Operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, should be available to spend on domestic jobs initiatives that would otherwise require extensive cuts in other areas of the federal budget.
“The [resources] will be used for something and we’re saying they should be used as a priority to give a tax cut to the middle class and other issues that are of concern to the middle class,” she said.
Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) and other Republicans, however, have argued that the war savings should strictly be used to pay down the nation’s nearly $15 trillion debt.
House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said Democrats will try to push through an extension of the payroll tax cut, even if some Republicans decide to vote against it again.
“We are prepared to cooperate on behalf of the welfare of our country and of our people.”
Geoff Holtzman contributed to this report, which was updated at 5:02 p.m.