WASHINGTON — House-Senate talks on renewing a payroll-tax cut that delivers about $20 a week to the average worker yielded a tentative agreement Tuesday, with lawmakers hopeful of unveiling the pact today and sending the measure to President Barack Obama as early as this week.
Under the outlines of the emerging agreement, a 2 percentage-point cut in the Social Security payroll tax would be extended through the end of the year, with the nearly $100 billion cost added to the deficit. Jobless benefits for the long-term unemployed would be renewed as well, with the $30 billion or so cost paid for in part through auctioning broadcast spectrum to wireless companies and requiring federal workers to contribute more toward their pensions.
Rep. Mike Simpson, R-Idaho, said it was described to lawmakers as a tentative agreement.
The payroll-tax cut and renewal of jobless benefits were key planks in Obama’s jobs program, which was announced in September. The payroll-tax cut benefits 160 million Americans and delivers a tax cut of about $20 a week for a typical worker making $50,000 a year. People making a $100,000 salary would get a $2,000 tax cut.
The deal not only would be a win for Obama but would take the payroll-tax fight — which put Republicans on the defensive — off the table for the fall election campaign.
“The mood is to get it off the table,” freshman Rep. Dennis Ross, R-Fla., said. “We’ve got to move on to another issue.”
The agreement also would avert a huge cut in Medicare payments to doctors, financed by cuts elsewhere in the federal health care budget, GOP and Democratic aides said.
The pact received a mixed but generally positive reception from rank-and-file House Republicans, who discussed the matter at a meeting Tuesday evening.
Obama weighed in Tuesday, urging Congress to act immediately to renew both the payroll-tax cut and jobless benefits for millions of workers who have been out of work for more than six months.
“Just pass this middle-class tax cut. Pass the extension of unemployment insurance,” Obama said at a White House appearance. “Do it before it’s too late, and I will sign it right away.”
