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Boehner to Obama: Thanks for the veto threat!
“180-degree difference.” What’s a House Speaker to do when his conference starts balking at his strategy? When conservatives resisted John Boehner’s efforts to craft a payroll-tax cut extension...
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Bluff called: House defies Obama veto threat, passes payroll cut extension...
Showdown? 234-193, a mostly but not entirely party-line vote. The payroll tax is going to be extended, rest assured, but right now we’re still in the kabuki phase where each side tries to maneuver the...
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Report: Democrats drop demand for new tax on millionaires in payroll tax...
Cave. Not so much a big win for us as a big loss for them. Democrats backed away from their demand for higher taxes on millionaires as part of legislation to extend Social Security tax cuts for most...
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Oh my: Obama ready to cave on veto threat over Keystone pipeline provision?
Retreat. Good lord. Not only did he promise to veto the payroll-tax-cut extension if the Keystone provision was attached, he did it at a press conference with Stephen Harper standing right next to...
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Robbing Peter to Pay Paul: US Economy Edition
The Administration seems to have cut a deal to extend the payroll tax cut, which is a smart economic move in terms of trying to support demand. But it's being paid for by an increase in the "G-fee"...
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House GOP balking at two-month extension of payroll-tax holiday
Go big and go home? There are plenty of reasons to oppose a lengthy extension of the payroll-tax holiday. There are plenty of reasons to support a lengthy extension of the payroll-tax holiday, too....
View ArticleBonusSpeak | 2 Month Tax Cut = Hidden Permenant Fee in Future Mortgages to...
Mortgage Fees Would Rise Under Payroll Tax Cut Deal Homebuyers, beware.In exchange for a two-month tax cut, the Senate on Saturday approved a permanent increase in fees attached to mortgages backed by...
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Oops: Two-month payroll-tax holiday would be a logistical nightmare, say experts
Back to the drawing board. Righties on Twitter are crowing that this means Reid’s bill is DOA, but I’m not so sure. Don’t forget, The One has been known to stand behind programs that even his own...
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Showdown: House GOP set to defeat Senate payroll-tax bill after Reid says he...
What now? No vote tonight, as it turns out. Supposedly the GOP caucus didn’t want to shoot down the Senate bill “in the dark of night,” but it may be that Boehner’s worried he might not have the votes...
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House kills payroll-tax bill, sets up showdown with Senate
Inexplicable. I guess it wouldn’t be Christmas without some brinksmanship all the way to New Year’s Eve. Last year that brinksmanship involved the extension of Bush-era tax rates and unemployment...
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Obama to House GOP: You don’t really want the middle class’s payroll taxes to...
The adult in the room. Alternate headline: “Only guy in America who’s enjoying this congressional clusterfark pretends like he wants it to end.” I got a kick out of Boehner’s new op-ed this afternoon...
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Cantor to Reid: Call the Senate back to address the payroll tax cut
Whiplash. House Majority Leader Rep. Eric Cantor took a recent interview on Bloomberg television as an opportunity to spin the House’s rejection of the Senate payroll-tax-cut bill. “Honestly, the...
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McCain to House GOP: This payroll-tax standoff is hurting the party, you know
“I think we need to recognize reality.” Is he right? Over to you, WSJ: GOP Senate leader Mitch McConnell famously said a year ago that his main task in the 112th Congress was to make sure that...
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WSJ warns House Republicans of “fiasco” on payroll tax holiday stand
“We wonder if they might end up re-electing the President before the 2012 campaign even begins in earnest.” Reminding House Republicans of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s pledge that his main...
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Karl Rove: The House GOP should cave on the payroll-tax holiday
Optics. Via TPM, in case the prospect of caving wasn’t already unpalatable to Boehner, knowing that the base will scream at him in the aftermath that he’s done Rove’s bidding should do the trick. I...
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Breaking: Deal near on payroll tax cut extension? Update: 90 days?
Saving face. Have Republicans and Democrats — or more precisely, Republicans and Republicans — resolved the standoff over the payroll tax cut extension? Nothing is breaking on the news websites as of...
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The Ed Morrissey Show: Duane “Generalissimo” Patterson & the Week in Review
3 pm ET, 90 minutes! Today, on the Ed Morrissey Show (3 pm ET), we’ll take a look at the past week with Duane “Generalissimo” Patterson of the Hugh Hewitt Show. Duane and I will try to keep up with...
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Why Republicans should have stood firmly against any payroll tax cut extension
Advice direct from Alexander Hamilton. While Republicans and Republicans near a deal to extend the payroll tax cut, an extension remains poor policy. The Social Security trust fund was designed as a...
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Breaking: House GOP agrees to Senate’s two-month payroll-tax bill; Update:...
Cave. Just across from National Journal. Our dumb national nightmare is over. House Republicans on Thursday crumpled under the weight of White House and public pressure and have agreed to pass a...
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Breaking: House passes Senate payroll-tax holiday extension on unanimous consent
Escape. House Republicans managed to end their week-long facepalm moment not with a bang, or even a whimper. Speaker John Boehner passed the Senate 60-day payroll-tax holiday extension by unanimous...
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Quotes of the day
Winners and losers. “The House Republicans’ initial rejection of this two-month extension was therefore correct on principle and on policy. But this was absolutely the wrong place, the wrong time, to...
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Quotes of the day
Happy new year? “What a waste of a year. What a year for doing nothing and going nowhere… “For me, the payroll tax battle is yet another indication of just how dysfunctional our political process...
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Congressional aides: Maybe Boehner will bypass the tea-party freshmen and...
Oh my. Two words: “Speaker Cantor.” Seriously, though, I’m skeptical that he’d do this. House Speaker John Boehner, hoping to spare fellow Republicans a second embarrassing defeat over payroll tax...
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The Hill poll: Majority says payroll tax holiday hasn’t benefited them
Plus, Republicans get edge on tax policy. Congress returned to Washington this month with an urgency to pass a year-long extension to the payroll-tax holiday, a reduction in FICA withholding that...
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Surprise! Borrowers get to pay for payroll-tax holiday
All costs get passed to consumers. Always. So you think you got a payroll-tax holiday for free? Think that the big fat-cat mortgage lenders will foot the bill as part of Obama’s promise to make the...
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Who’s serious about extending the payroll-tax cut?
Yes, this is a trick question. Late last night, Politico reported that talks have broken down between Republicans and Democrats in the Senate over the extension of the payroll-tax cut for the full...
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“No Drama Obama” again “can’t wait” to pass a payroll tax cut extension
Yuck. Payroll tax extension, how do I hate thee? Let me count the ways. // I hate thee to the depth and breadth and height // My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight // For the ends of Being and...
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Under pressure, Republicans concede on unemployment benefits and doc fix
Cave. Part of the reason Republicans would be better served to stick to principle is that they rarely, if ever, manage to out-maneuver Democrats at the political game. No better evidence of this...
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Panic in the Wind Power lobby?
Federal teat running dry There is a little noted element of the payroll tax holiday extension going through congress, and to the surprise of many it has nothing to do with funding Social Security or...
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House passes payroll tax cut deal
Yippee! Not. After House Republicans caved in negotiations earlier this week, this should come as no surprise to anyone: By a bipartisan majority of 293 to 132, the House today passed a deal to offer...
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