Hoyer: Republicans Have Broken Their Promise

House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) accused Republicans on Tuesday of reneging on a promise they made last year to not attach policy riders to necessary legislation.

“In the Pledge to America, the Republicans said this: ‘We will end the practice of packaging unpopular bills with must pass legislation to circumvent the will of the American people,’” Hoyer quoted.

“That’s what they’re doing,” he said. “They said they wouldn’t do it, they’re breaking their pledge, they are doing it. They’re doing it because it’s politically expedient to do it, not because they think it will pass.”

Hoyer referred to the GOP’s payroll tax cut extension plan as “political gamesmanship” because they were explicitly told by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) that his chamber would not pass their bill.

The inclusion of the Keystone XL Pipeline mandate, which President Obama said would be grounds for vetoing the bill as a whole if it reached his desk, is further proof of Republicans’ partisan policy, according to Hoyer.

Hoyer, a longtime advocate for federal workers, continued to criticize the package for breaking the deal made in the Budget Control Act. Included in the GOP payroll tax package is an extension of the federal base pay freeze, which, according to Hoyer, would decrease the agreed upon “discretionary number” for federal employees. If the freeze extension is passed, $60 billion would be taken from federal employees’ salaries over the next decade.

With a number of issues still on the table and less than a week before the House is set to break for the holidays, Hoyer expressed concern that the session would be extended.

“This is theoretically the last week of the session,” Hoyer remarked. “I say that hopefully, but not with a good deal of confidence.”

GOP Ignoring Middle Class, Say House Dems

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.