GOP leaders admit defeat in payroll tax battle

[NJMaverick]

House GOP leaders had wanted to offset the cost of a payroll tax extension by spending cuts. But their decision Monday suggests that the political cost of a stalemate was too high.

Quote:In a surprise move, House Republican leaders on Monday backed off their demands in the battle over extending a payroll tax cut that affects some 160 million Americans.

The move, which would keep payroll taxes at their current 4.2 percent rate through 2012, is expected to add another $83 billion to federal budget deficits. Republicans had wanted to offset that amount through spending cuts.

The House GOP has not given up its fight entirely. Other provisions set to expire Feb. 29 – extended unemployment insurance and a “fix” for a 27 percent mandated cut in reimbursement rates for doctors treating Medicare patients – remain stalled, especially over how to pay for them.


But had Republicans not yielded on the popular payroll tax break, the political costs could have been formidable, especially in an election year.

“It’s a total capitulation,” says Stan Collender, a longtime congressional budget analyst, now with Qorvis Communications in Washington. House Speaker John “Boehner read the tea leaves and said, ‘I’m not going to do this again.’ ”

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/20...tax-battle

[jaxx]

But they will still try to stop the unemployment extensions. The pubs can't be trusted.

[NJMaverick]

(02-14-2012 08:50 AM)jaxx Wrote:  But they will still try to stop the unemployment extensions. The pubs can't be trusted.

Yup the GOP can't screw over the middle class so they will make it up by kicking the unemployed. You know how it is, nothing cheers up a Republican like kicking a person when they are down.

[pappy]

Beware of Republicans bearing concessions.

[Andy823]

(02-14-2012 07:58 AM)NJMaverick Wrote:  House GOP leaders had wanted to offset the cost of a payroll tax extension by spending cuts. But their decision Monday suggests that the political cost of a stalemate was too high.

Quote:In a surprise move, House Republican leaders on Monday backed off their demands in the battle over extending a payroll tax cut that affects some 160 million Americans.

The move, which would keep payroll taxes at their current 4.2 percent rate through 2012, is expected to add another $83 billion to federal budget deficits. Republicans had wanted to offset that amount through spending cuts.

The House GOP has not given up its fight entirely. Other provisions set to expire Feb. 29 – extended unemployment insurance and a “fix” for a 27 percent mandated cut in reimbursement rates for doctors treating Medicare patients – remain stalled, especially over how to pay for them.


But had Republicans not yielded on the popular payroll tax break, the political costs could have been formidable, especially in an election year.

“It’s a total capitulation,” says Stan Collender, a longtime congressional budget analyst, now with Qorvis Communications in Washington. House Speaker John “Boehner read the tea leaves and said, ‘I’m not going to do this again.’ ”

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/20...tax-battle

No matter what Boehner read in his tea leaves, I think they have pretty much painted themselves into a corner and they can't get out. Catering to the "crazies" in the tea party crowd isn't working, and maybe they are figuring that out, but it comes a to late to really help them over come the view the public has of them.

You can't keep being the party of NO, NO, NO, for going on four years, stopping everything that might have actually helped this economy, created jobs, and got us out of the mess that Bush and his republicans got us into, without the people noticing.

I think right now Boehner doesn't have a clue to what he needs to do. I honestly think he will be challenged in his primary by some tea party nut, and if by some miracle he does win, I still think some tea party nut may run in the general election, hurting Boehner even more, and allowing democrats to win that race. He is in a lot of trouble if you ask me.