GOP Leaders, Conferees Vow To Work Through Holiday

House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.), flanked by Republican conferees selected to negotiate a final payroll tax holiday deal, again pleaded with Senate Democrats Wednesday to return to Washington, appoint conferees and “do the people’s work.”

“All we’re asking for is to get the Senate Dems over here to work with us to resolve our difference so we can do what everybody wants to do; extend the payroll tax credit for the next year,” Boehner told reporters. 

Cantor said that the only item separating the two parties is the duration of a potential extended payroll package. A bill passed by the Senate would’ve extended the payroll tax holiday, unemployment insurance and doctor reimbursements for two months. House Republicans, however, disapproved of that, arguing that the extension should be lengthened from two months to an entire year. 

So lies the current debate that has yet again forced Congress to work into the eleventh hour to reach consensus, this time on an issue that would directly affect more than 160 million Americans. it’s no wonder a whopping 86 percent of Americans disapprove of the job Congress is doing, according to a recent Gallup poll. 

House Republicans, though, have vowed to stick around as long as it takes for a deal to get done. Considering both Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) have announced that they would not be appointing conferees, it’s not likely that the two chambers will reach a deal via conference. 

“Republicans are committed to a full-year’s tax cut for families… and we’re willing to work throughout the holidays to make sure that happens,” Rep. Kevin Brady, a GOP conferree, said. “So Mr. President, Senate Democrats, vacation’s second, do your jobs first.”

House Balks At Senate Payroll Package, Calls For Conference

UPDATE — House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) called on Senate Democrats and President Obama to remain in Washington throughout the holidays to “work out our differences” and extend a payroll tax holiday for one year rather than approving a temporary, two-month extension.

“We’ve done our job, all we need now is to resolve our differences,” Boehner said Tuesday shortly after the House diapproved of a Senate bill to extend the payroll tax holiday. “There’s no reason we can’t do this in short order.”

Boehner also made clear, that despite previous reports that the House would adjourn following Tuesday’s votes, House GOP leadership and a handful of negotiators will remain “ready and able” to finalize a year-long extensions before Jan. 1. According to the Speaker, Reps. Kevin Brady (R-Texas), David Camp (R-Mich.), Renee Ellmers (R-N.C.), Nan Hayworth (R-N.Y.), Tom Price (R-Ga.), Tom Reed (R-N.Y.), Fred Upton (R-Mich.) and Greg Walden (R-Ore.) would be on hand and in Washington through the end of the year.

The House Speaker questioned the willingness of President Obama to increase his involvement by demanding Senate Democrats reconvene to hash out an agreement.

“Now it’s up to the president to show real leadership,” Boehner said. “He said that won’t leave town for the holidays until this bill is done. I think President Obama needs to call on Senate Democrats to go back into session move to go a conference, and to sit down and resolve this bill as quickly as possible. We’ve done our work for the American people and now it’s up to the president and Democrats in the Senate to do their obs as well.”

This story was updated at 2:34p.m. EST…

UPDATE — Just before 1:00p.m. EST Tuesday, the House voted 229-193 to disapprove of the Senate’s two-month payroll holiday extension, calling the upper chamber back to conference to work out their differences.

The vote puts pressure back on Senate Democrats to reconvene even though Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has already said the upper chamber was done with votes for the year. Reid took to his Twitter account to respond to the House’s latest vote.

“Happy to cont. negotiations on a yearlong deal as soon as #House passes the #Senate’s compromise, & prevents tax hike from hitting mid class,” Reid tweeted.

Reid’s statement indicates that Senate Democrats will not likely return to conference with House Republicans.

According to a Democratic aide who spoke on the condition of anonymity, following the lower chamber’s scheduled votes Tuesday, House members plan to follow suit with the Senate and adjourn for the holidays, leaving no window for a conference to actually take place.

“No conference, no nothing, everything expires,” the Democratic source said.

This story was updated at 1:26p.m. EST…

WASHINGTON - The House is expected to vote Tuesday on a plan that would send a Senate-passed, two-year payroll tax cut extension into conference, a procedure that would allow Republicans to reject the upper chamber’s bill without actually voting against it. 

Though House Republicans will not formally reject the Senate-passed extension with a vote, GOP leaders have said that the move to conference with the upper chamber would serve as a vote against the Senate’s bill. 

House Republicans are vehemently opposed to the duration of the two-month extension drafted in the Senate. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) has said it is an attempt to “kick the can down the road for 60 days” and Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) has said the “two-month bill would do more harm than good.”

Despite an 89-10 vote in the upper chamber and approval from Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), House Republicans have opted to bring the bill to a conference in an effort to reach a deal that would extend the payroll tax package for a full year rather than accept a two-month-long extension. Democrats are taking the opportunity to label House Republicans as obstructionists.

“Speaker Boehner should allow an up-or-down vote on the compromise that Senator McConnell and I negotiated at Speaker Boehner’s request, and which was supported by 89 Republican and Democratic senators,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said in a statement. “It would be unconscionable to block a bipartisan agreement that would protect middle-class families from the thousand-dollar tax increase looming on January 1. It is time for Speaker Boehner to follow through.”

Reid has indicated that he will not re-open negotiations over the duration of the payroll tax holiday until the House passes the two-month extension. 

Pelosi: GOP On Their Own In Omnibus Vote

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) warned GOP leaders in the House that if they plan to vote on a $1 trillion omnibus bill this week, they can do it without the support of House Democrats.

“I hope they have the votes for it, because if they don’t’, they won’t be getting any cooperation from us,” Pelosi told reporters at her weekly press briefing. 

House Republican leaders are expected to bring the omnibus to the floor without Democratic support. This could be an uphill battle for House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) who has had trouble winning the votes of some rank-and-file Republicans on a number of occasions throughout the year. 

With the end of the week fast approaching, the threat of yet another government shutdown looms over Congress. One option that would essentially serve as Plan B for Congress is the potential for passing a short-term continuing resolution that would keep the government funded into next week, giving the legislative body more time to work out their differences with the current payroll package.

Pelosi said that a shutdown was, in fact, possible but that there were many avenues available that would work to avoid it. 

“It’s only a decision that Republicans have to make that they want to avoid a shutdown by coming to the table and coming to their sense about what is fair to get the job done, to get results for the American people, instead of creating a crisis,” Pelosi said. 

Pelosi stood by the White House’s threat to veto the bill, saying “our caucus supports the president if he wants to veto the bill because of some of the provisions that are in there. We won’t be voting for a bill that has them.”

“It’s like someone saying to her fiancé, ‘Yes, I’ll finally marry you, but I can only do that on Feb. 30,’” Pelosi said. “That day is never coming, nor is the day coming when the president will sign the that Republicans passed.” 

House GOP Announce Bill Extending Payroll Tax Cut, Approving Keystone Pipeline

By Andrea Salazar

House GOP leadership Thursday announced that they expect a vote on extending Social Security payroll tax cuts next week.

House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said, at news conference, that the bill would also include an extension and reform of unemployment benefits and approval for the Keystone XL Pipeline, despite President Obama’s threat to veto any bill linked to the oil pipeline.

“Mr. President, we will have some of your ideas in this bill, but maybe it’s time to try some of ours. Do not veto this jobs bill,”  said Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas).

Acknowledging that the bill does not include everything both sides asked for, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) said it “does make some progress.”

“This bill does ensure that we abide by the principle that we want people to keep more of their hard-earned money, and this bill does have some incremental steps towards continued efforts of economic growth,” Cantor said.

But Rep. Sander Levin (D-Mich.), ranking member of the House Ways and Means Committee, said Republicans have “chosen a path of confrontation instead of the search for common ground.”

“The president said he’d veto it,” Levin said at a briefing on extending unemployment benefits. “So instead of reaching out…they’re trying to undercut the president.”

Janie Amaya contributed to this story.

Obama Invokes Teddy, Pushes Congress To Pursue Fairness

By Adrianna McGinley

President Obama called on Congress Tuesday to channel the policies of former President Theodore Roosevelt to bring the country out of recession and keep the “American dream” alive for middle-class Americans.

“At the turn of the last century, when a nation of farmers was transitioning to become the world’s industrial giant, we had to decide: would we settle for a country where most of the new railroads and factories were controlled by a few giant monopolies that kept prices high and wages low? Would we allow our citizens and even our children to work ungodly hours in conditions that were unsafe and unsanitary? Would we restrict education to the privileged few? Because some people thought massive inequality and exploitation was just the price of progress,” Obama said during remarks in Osawatomie, Kansas. “Theodore Roosevelt disagreed.”

“He believed then what we know is true today, that the free market is the greatest force for economic progress in human history,” Obama added. “But Roosevelt also knew that the free market has never been a free license to take whatever you want from whoever you can.”

Obama said Roosevelt was called a radical, socialist and communist for his progressive ideas, but reminded his audience that those ideas were what eventually brought the country out of depression. According to Obama, Roosevelt faced the same skepticism that exists today from “a certain crowd in Washington” who claim the market would “take care of everything…if only we cut more regulations and cut more taxes.”

These critics, Obama said, praise the “trickle-down” theory; a theory he believes lacks what the country needs.

“It’s never worked,” he said. “It didn’t work when it was tried in the decade before the Great Depression. It’s not what led to the incredible post-war boom of the 50s and 60s.”

Obama said that a child born into poverty in the years following World War II had a 50 percent chance of reaching the middle class and in 1980 their chance dropped to 40 percent. Today, he said, their chance has fallen to just one in three.

“The idea that those children might not have a chance to climb out of that situation and back into the middle class, no matter how hard they work? That’s inexcusable. It’s wrong. It flies in the face of everything we stand for,” Obama said.

“This isn’t just another political debate. This is the defining issue of our time. This is a make or break moment for the middle class, and all those who are fighting to get into the middle class.”

Obama called on Congress to pass comprehensive, long-term tax reform, consumer protection measures and support for higher education to bring the U.S. back to prosperity.

“In this economy, a higher education is the surest route to the middle class… We shouldn’t be making it harder to afford college, we should be a country where everyone has the chance to go.”

Obama pushed for an extension of the payroll tax and unemployment benefits to aid struggling middle class families immediately but said “we have to rethink our tax system more fundamentally” in the long term.

“We have to ask ourselves: Do we want to make the investments we need in things like education, and research, and high-tech manufacturing? Or do we want to keep in place the tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans in our country? Because we can’t afford to do both. That’s not politics. That’s just math,” Obama said.

The president called out Republicans for continuing to defend the Bush-era tax cuts and criticized his conservative colleagues for refusing to ask millionaires to return to Clinton-era tax rates.

When Clinton proposed tax increases on wealthy Americans, Obama said, there were fears it would “kill jobs and lead to another recession” but instead,  nearly 23 million jobs were created and the deficit was eliminated.

“I’m here to reaffirm my deep conviction that we are greater together than we are on our own,” Obama said. “I believe that this country succeeds when everyone gets a fair shot, when everyone does their fair share, and when everyone plays by the same rules. Those aren’t Democratic or Republican values; 1 percent values or 99 percent values. They’re American values, and we have to reclaim them.”