Press Staff Blog
From the Democratic Whip Press Shop:
Today, Senators Lugar and Brown called on the House GOP leadership to do what’s best for the country and pass the bipartisan Senate bill to extend middle class tax cuts, which 39 Senate Republicans supported.
Wanted to be sure you saw this NY Times article on the consequences of Republicans walking away from a bipartisan bill to extend middle class tax cuts. By refusing to compromise, House Republicans are putting economic growth and jobs at risk. It’s time for GOP leadership to drop their opposition and work with Democrats to avoid a tax hike on middle class families.
Key excerpts:
What a difference a day makes.
On Saturday, Speaker Boehner supported the Senate’s bipartisan bill to extend middle class tax cuts, calling it a “good deal”:
From the NY Times: “A number of House members who participated in the call said Mr. Boehner told them they should accept the deal, however imperfect, and fight for a better one next year.”
With less than two weeks until a slew of critical provisions expire—including the payroll tax holiday, unemployment benefits and the Medicare physician payment rate compromise---Majority Leader Eric Cantor said on the floor a few minutes ago; “it is difficult to predict…if or when we may need to return.”
In case you missed it yesterday in all the back and forth over year-end business, we here in the Democratic Whip Press Shop wanted to highlight a critical number: 2.5 million.
That is the number of young people age 19-25 added to the health insurance rolls since the landmark health reform law went into effect, according to an administration analysis.
Today, at an event sponsored by Politico, Speaker Boehner said:
“The American people expect us to find common ground and move the ball down the field. That’s exactly what we have in this package.”
While Republicans are playing politics instead of getting work done for the American people, they did manage to earn one big distinction – though it’s not the big prize Speaker Boehner was hoping for: a new Wall Street Journal/NBC poll released yesterday shows that 42% of Americans think this Congress is “one of the worst” in history.
Yesterday on “Fox News Sunday,” Senator McConnell claimed that attaching an unrelated, controversial items like the Keystone pipeline to a year-end tax package was worth it because it was ready to go and would create thousands of jobs:
Speaker Boehner and Leader Cantor’s least favorite quote of the weekend, from Senator Lindsay Graham (R-SC) on NBC’s Meet the Press:
“At the end of the day, the payroll tax will get extended as it is now. …The pipeline's probably not going to sell.”
So much for that plan. Maybe they’ll have to go back to their pledge not to lump controversial provisions, like Keystone, into must-pass bills.