The Payroll Tax Cut Fiasco...

Dec 21st, 2011

First, a startlingly hostile reaction from the editorial board of the Wall Street Journal:

"GOP Senate leader Mitch McConnell famously said a year ago that his main task in the 112th Congress was to make sure that President Obama would not be re-elected. Given how he and House Speaker John Boehner have handled the payroll tax debate, we wonder if they might end up re-electing the President before the 2012 campaign even begins in earnest."

AP reports:

"Some say they’ll spend less on groceries. Others expect to cut back on travel. For many, there would be fewer meals out.

Across the country, Americans are bracing for another financial hardship: smaller paychecks starting in January, if Congress doesn’t break a deadlock and renew a Social Security tax cut."

Sullivan observes:

"The House Republicans have now all but guaranteed that taxes will go up on middle-class Americans because of what they themselves have called "high stakes poker." And this moment may as well sum up why Americans despise this Congress as deeply as they do:"


"Yep, he is literally walking away - giving Hoyer a perfect moment for the rhetorical slam-dunk.

For the GOP to vote down sustaining a tax cut - after a huge majority in the Senate and president had both signed off - and to stalk off into the Christmas vacation leaving a struggling workforce in the lurch ... well, it's a novel form of politicking, don't you think? I understand why this two-month extension is a joke, but again, that simply reveals the poker game attitude of the House GOP, refusing to do what they wouldn't even think twice about of a Republican president asked. They hate Obama so much they are willing to raise taxes! Think how deep the derangement must then go."

Perhaps the DNC should start paying the GOP for their assistance in the President's re-election.

Marin Cogan paints a picture of the GOP Freshmen as suffering from what I would describe as 'Mr. Smith Syndrome:'

"You could be forgiven for thinking that, with 10 days left before a middle class tax increase, the House GOP freshmen would be starting to sweat the political implications this game of chicken over the payroll tax holiday.

But you’d be wrong.

As they have for so many of the major legislative battles of the year, the freshmen framed the showdown with the Senate as a time to fight on principle, a prime example of why they were sent to Washington in the first place—the D.C. establishment be damned if they don’t see it similarly."

Along with 160 million citizens.