The (New York) Daily News reported (“A very merry tax-mas for the president,” 12/23/11) that Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives gave in to a deal to extend the payroll tax cut for two months.
Without the extension, an average worker making $50,000 a year, for example, would have had to have paid $1,000 more in payroll taxes beginning Jan. 1.
House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), who held out for a week against backing the deal passed in the U.S. Senate, said the House will vote on the Senate compromise. There is an agreement with Senate Democrats in the extension to negotiate to make the cuts last for a year.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said House Republicans should pass the two-month extension in exchange for an agreement to name Democrats to a committee that would negotiate a one-year deal.
The deal includes a requirement that the White House will decide in 60 days on a pipeline from Canada to Texas and the extension of unemployment benefits for 2.3 million people.
Pols showed that voters were favoring President Barack Obama as a champion of the “little guy” over Republicans.
I think this is good news and hopefully will help Obama in November. I am glad to see that the House Republicans have been knocked off their high horses, and hopefully this means they will be more humble in the future. I also hope that the cuts are extended for a year, the unemployment benefits are extended, and the president decides against the pipeline.
In other News:
- The New York Review of Books, “Republicans for revolution,” 1/12/12
The Writer, “Historical novels and the ‘truth,’” January 2012 - Daily News, “OWS to revisit Zuccotti Park,” 12/25/11
- Daily News, “On the money: BofA CEO toots horn in year-end message,” 12/24/11
- Daily News, “Payroll tax extension is now law,” 12/24/11
- Daily News, “Hate-filled GOP suffering from self-inflicted wounds,” 12/23/11
- Daily News, “Former Fannie Mae CEO taking leave following SEC charges,” 12/22/11
- Daily News, “Wall St. execs should pay for bad deals: Liu,” 12/22/11
- Daily News, “The GOP’s big goof,” 12/22/11
- Daily News, “G.I. bullied to an ugly death,” 12/22/11
- Daily News, “Bam rages as House nixes payroll tax cut,” 12/21/11
- Daily News, “Are there more Earths?,” 12/21/11
- Daily News, “House delays tax cut vote,” 12/20/11
- Daily News, “No bah humbug from S.I. ferry terminal workers,” 12/20/11
- Daily News, “No more ferry merry Christmas,” 12/19/11
- Daily News, “OWS protesters rally for immigration rights,” 12/19/11
- Daily News, “Snow rush on MTA diggers,” 12/19/11
- Daily News, “On guns, it’s time to be like Mike,” 12/19/11
- Daily News, “U.S. troops joyful as last of ‘em leave Iraq,” 12/19/11
- Daily News, “Tax break kicked out of House,” 12/19/11
- Quill, “Papers will elaborate on Code’s tenets,” November/December 2011
- Quill, “We need YOU in FOI fight,” November/December 2011
- Quill, “When bad is good: 10 impossible champions of the First Amendment,” November/December 2011
