WASHINGTON — The Senate on Thursday rejected dueling Democratic and Republican plans for extending the Social Security payroll tax.
The votes demonstrated both parties’ inability to prevail in the Senate over how to renew the payroll tax reduction and left the spotlight on the GOP-run House. There, House Speaker John Boehner said Thursday that he’s confident that Republicans are ready to move on legislation continuing a payroll tax cut, but the GOP remained on a collision course with Obama over a side issue.
Republicans want to couple continuation of the Social Security payroll tax cut with a provision that would assure construction of an oil pipeline from Canada to Texas — a move Obama has said would lead to a veto.
The president, speaking to reporters at the White House Thursday, said Congress must act on the payroll tax cut before leaving for the holidays and said he would delay his Hawaiian vacation and stay in Washington “as long as it takes” to win extensions of the payroll tax cut and jobless benefits for the long-term unemployed.
“I do not expect Congress to go home unless the payroll tax cut is extended and unless unemployment insurance is extended,” Obama said. “It would be wrong for families, but it would also be wrong for the economy as a whole.“
The Associated Press
