Thanks to a complicated manipulation of House rules, Republicans Tuesday rejected a broadly bipartisan Senate stopgap plan to extend the current payroll tax cut and other key provisions for two months.
The final vote was 229 - 193. In effect, those voting “yes” were voting to nix the Senate bill and to instead move ahead with House-Senate negotiations to pass a full-year extension of the payroll tax cut, emergency unemployment benefits, and Medicare physician payments, all of which are set to expire on January 1.
After staging a dramatic rebellion from GOP leadership, and putting the payroll tax cut at real risk of expiring, House Republicans are now taking an enormous leap of political faith. By nixing the broadly bipartisan Senate plan, they’re hoping to force Senate Democrats’ hand and bring them back to Washington to negotiate a 12-month extension of the payroll tax cut, in the final days of the year.
The gamble is three-fold: that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid will cave; that Republicans will get a better deal in the next two weeks than they will in two months; and third, that if the payroll tax cut expires they’ll manage to spin their way out of the blame for it.
Part of that spin will rest on the convoluted procedure Republicans used to reject the Senate compromise. They didn’t give that bill an up-or-down vote. They gave it a down-or-down vote. The question before the House wasn’t “do you agree with the Senate bill?” It was “do you disagree with the Senate bill?” Thus a “yes” vote was actually a vote against extending the payroll tax cut and vice-versa; and even if the majority of the House had supported the Senate bill, it wouldn’t have passed. It was set up to fail.
In the lead up to Tuesday’s vote, Senate Democrats expressed a great deal of confidence that they would win the battle for public perception. Now the question is whether they truly believed that, and will keep up the brinkmanship — even if it means allowing the payroll cut lapse temporarily — or whether, under pressure from House Republicans, they’ll come back to the Capitol and begin yet more negotiations on yet another compromise.
Both Reid and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi have said publicly they have no intention of reopening negotiations. But if they do, they’ll have an awful lot of leverage. As the 2011 calendar thins out, and the possibility that the payroll tax will expire becomes more and more real, they’ll be able to point to the Senate compromise — which got 89 votes — and demand Republicans offer them a better deal than that.
Brian Beutler
Brian Beutler is TPM's senior congressional reporter. Since 2009, he's led coverage of health care reform, Wall Street reform, taxes, the GOP budget, the government shutdown fight, and the debt limit fight. He can be reached at brian@talkingpointsmemo.com.
NorthsideTony I thought the answer was Bin Laden has better skin tone...
It's time for the Dems to make a decision. While I appreciate that they have "caved" in the past because they were doing the right thing for the country, it's clear the GOP is playing by a different set of rules. So...maybe this is the place to force the issue: refuse to compromise on a bill that the Speaker of the House said was okay...before changing his mind when he found his caucus in rebellion, and make the GOP take the heat for what they've done. Yeah, I don't like the result, but it's about time somebody held the children accountable for their actions. I don't like it, but in the short term I'd take the tax increase to reveal the truth about what's happening every day.
Democracy in action!
Perhaps Congress needs to be Occupied.
President Obama: "This is not poker. But if you'd like to play a timed game of three-dimensional chess, take a seat."
So long that Reid and the Senate stay away, Orange John, Can'tor, and the Teafuckers stay in the shitter in the opinion of the American people. When they see their feeble bluff evaporate and they have 160 million people very pissed at them, well, they still son't give a shit! And never will.
As I have said before and I will say it again. This Country is going to War with the Republican Party. They are a bunch of "wooden heads". They have to manipulate every stance they take to make it sound reasonable. They can't come up with any compromises because they are so frozen to in their own stupid lack luster hubris. I am sick of them. The poor and the rich are going to meet up someday, sometime and there is going to be a real war in the US. I hope I am still alive to cheer the poor on. Mary True
Enjoy your Christmas holidays at home with your families US Senators and House Dems. House GOPs will be spending their's in D.C. and wondering why all they got was a bag of rocks.
The Senate GOP is wondering why they just got hit in the head with a bag of rocks. bdtex
Zentrailsbdtex Texting Ugh... Big bag of rocks needed.
bdtex Yeah, good luck with that reelect thingy next November and those 160+ million people who won't be voting for the GOP!
bdtex "Christmas holidays"? There's more than one?
Mickey Bitsko For some people.
Can we spank them for acting like 3 year olds having a temper tantrum?!??! Vote them out, fire them all!!
"Because some men aren't looking for anything logical, like money. They can't be bought, bullied, reasoned or negotiated with. Some men just want to watch the world burn." That was from Batman: The Dark Knight about The Joker. The House TEApublican majority is actively trying to destroy whatever they can get their hands on. They dont want to take their country back. They dont want to take it forward. They want to light it on fire and drive it off a cliff. Why? They believe it is their birthright to impose their view of "freedom" onto everyone else.
James Fields Um, I'm pretty sure most if not all the Republicans in the House are pretty rich regardless of their paycheck. They have no interest in governing because they make money either way. They either get their way, or the cause so much bureaucratic gridlock, no one stops them from doing what they want anyway. It greed not nihilism that drives them.
James Fields
Because they believe they own it , and they are going to punish the electorate for having the temerity for putting a decent man in the White House
The 'I didn't vote for the Senate compromise' shit will start any day now.
Doing nothing is indeed the best move for the DEMs right now.
meanwhile, SAY plenty.
Zentrails Harry should send them a lovely photo of him overlooking the Grand Canyon with a Santa hat on, saying "Greetings and Merry Christmas from Nevada"...and nothing more.
The DEMS should put out campaign ads immediately showing all those RW idiots standing behind Boehner laughing about raising taxes on the middle class. Name them one by one. JJRothery
ZentrailsJJRothery
The Dems ought to be using This:
JJRotheryZentrails Psst: the Grand Canyon is in Arizona. Good thought though, Reid can send his postcard from Hoover dam.
The speaker is taking calls but if you disagree with the man that answers the phone he'll transfer you to voice mail. Typical Republicans. They just can't stand it when someone disagrees with them. They don't sound and act like they live in a democracy.
Harry's mailbox is full but John the bone head is taking calls 202-225-6205
downsdway Wrong! Stayed on hold, and finally the staffer picked up the line, then hung up, immediately. Guess his/her holiday spirit ran out. So, who's worse, Boner, or his staff? Tough call. The lobbyists must pay staffers well, eh?
MAybe you libtards can answer: WHY DOES NOBAMA not want to help out BOEHNER AND pass sensible legislation? wHY does he just want TO OBSTRUCT CONGRESS AND the will of the PEOPLE???
Mr.Banana Hammock I think it's a Kenyan thing. Probably anti-colonialist/socialist/Marxist ideology mixed with a dose of reverse racism.
Kenyan anti-colonialism forces him to DESTROY AMERICA! Handy
Mr.Banana Hammock I dn't know for sure... I suspect he is trying to help people other than the kochettes... really, are you that stoned?
paulgibson53Mr.Banana Hammock Another five bucks to the Hammock Beemer Fund...
Adjust your snark meters, folks...
paulgibson53Mr.Banana Hammock It's snark guy....
Boehner reaches out to ZeroOneTerm in the spirit of Christmas and Compromise and just like Scrooge, ZeroOneTerm slaps Boehner's hand away. A sad day for Democracy and Libtards....
JJRotherypaulgibson53
No, he's just on the Koch Bros payroll. Hey, it's a job!!paulgibson53 Mr.Banana Hammock
I have no dog in this fight but I say let the damn thing expire - setting the example of what we need to do with all of the Bush tax cuts. The GOP really has no bargaining position if the D's would just say enough is enough.
If the whole health of the economy rests on these number then let the economy take a hit too. It is beyond ridiculous to think we should cut any spending to satisfy these insane circus clowns dressed up as GOP politicians.
The problem is that the economy is not going to just "take a hit" we're talking double dip recession here. This is serious fire the idiot RW teabaggers are playing with. Handy
Handy Some of us rely on the US economy for our livelihoods. If it were a video game, I'd agree.
Things will never change unless we can make Conservative ideas as evil to mainstream America as things like pedophilia are.
Seafarer Not sure how to accomplish that. Self-identifying conservatives still remain the largest ideological segment of the nation. http://www.gallup.com/poll/141032/2010-conservativ...
sethistanSeafarer
The problem with polls like that is that self-identifying conservatives identify themselves that way mostly because the word "liberal" has been so demonized. On the issues, those same "conservatives" will side with the liberal position more often than not. It's hip to call yourself a conservative. Most people don't even know what a real conservative is, the same way they throw around the term "socialist" without a clue about how to define it.
Most people who call themselves "conservatives" are not for widespread deregulation, privatization of everything, destruction of the social safety net, reduction of gov't. to the point of ineffectiveness, lower taxes on the rich, legalized discrimination, religion in schools or prohibitions on abortion. The majority of "independents" are just people who used to consider themselves conservative until they realized what that really meant and that they don't agree, or they're to embarrassed to be associated with conservatives.
Rut-roh. CNN's comments on this story are now about "gun-totin' and I'll take 'em outta office my own way." And now Bama-lam-a-lam-OH! is calling for marriage counseling. Son, Oprah, you're not.
"After staging a dramatic rebellion from GOP leadership, and putting the payroll tax cut at real risk of expiring, House Republicans are now taking an enormous leap of political faith. By nixing the broadly bipartisan Senate plan, they’re hoping to force Senate Democrats’ hand and bring them back to Washington to negotiate a 12-month extension of the payroll tax cut, in the final days of the year."
These guys are terrorists, par excellence! People who don't have to depend on whether or not this issue gets settled will perhaps not know what must be going thru the minds and bodies of those whose lives depend upon it.
Beatlemania ha taken over congress:
You say "Yes", I say "No". You say "Stop" and I say "Go, go, go". Oh no. You say "Goodbye" and I say "Hello, hello, hello". I don't know why you say "Goodbye", I say "Hello, hello, hello". I don't know why you say goodbye, I say hello. I say "High", you say "Low". You say "Why?" And I say "I don't know". Oh no.
The Republicans don't care about middle class tax cuts. The only thing they care about is the Medicare doc fix. Since that will expire on January 1st that may be the only thing that may bring them back to the table.
John Boehner "No millionaire ever called me over a 2% hike in the payroll tax, because no millionaire pays it".
I really don't get the double standard that seems to pervade the "liberal" media. When Dems compromise to get things done, people accuse them of "caving" .
In situations like this where it's the Repubs that are holding things up, you get the hand wringing and media wondering why Democrats and Repubs can't work together.
I just watched Chris Cilliza pull that bullshit while talking to Rep Steny Hoyer.
Earlier, CNN radio said Republicans don't want the short term deal that was passed by Democrats. What they purposely forgot to mention was that the Senate deal had bipartisan support and it is Repubs in the House that are going against the Repubs in the Senate.
What the fuck.
And fuck you Scott Brown for trying to now all of a sudden call your GOP pals out. Where have you been the last three years?
It's Pat And some hardcore liberals think that the Republicans get the best of these deals but they are not. Obama set up the republicans in Feb with the budget agreement that averted a government shutdown by keeping all of the funding for programs Dems hold dear while producing phantom budget cuts (meaning they were not real cuts), Then Obama set them up with the Budget deal that raised the Debt celing which left out cuts to Medicare benefits but produced cuts for Medicare insurers and large cuts in Defense.
And this recent deal with the Republicans which included Keystone was an epic fail for Republicans because it pretty much killed the pipeline which is what they were going to do anyway.
The funny thing about it is if you go over to red state and other conservative sites they see guys like Cantor and McConnell and Boehner as caving to Democrats .
jeremyziglarIt's Pat Exactly; this has been where Obama and Reid have been brilliant in the last couple of years. They produce these deals that are carefully crafted to allow the Republicans to crow about how they got everything, when in fact they got nothing. They usually realize this a few days later, but it only gets publicity on the right-wing blogosphere and sites like TPM. Liberal activist sites and the liberal commentariat just fall for the "caving" line and stick with it.
It's worth noting, BTW, that this tactic is similar to how the Republicans themselves have treated much of their evangelical right-wing base up until the last year or two. Despite all their promises, there's been little actually done to restrict abortion or on any other social issues until the PP defunding and all the TP-inspired state level restrictions that started in 2010.
I wish I were quite as sanguine as the two of you... I'd like to think that it is all part of a big plan, but I think it's really just a question of them caving in the hope of reaching an agreement and being the only adult in the room, followed by the gift that keeps on giving -- Repub insanity that causes them to keep demanding more. The end result is that it looks like Obama and Reid were brilliantly setting the Repubs up, but I think a lot of that is just contextual luck. midnight rambler jeremyziglar It's Pat
gopers don't care about abortions.....never will midnight rambler jeremyziglar It's Pat
Q: what's the difference between Boehner and Bin Laden?
A: Bin Laden isn't a terrorist anymore.
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