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Posted on 02/13/2012 5:40:59 PM PST by SeekAndFind
(Reuters) - Republican leaders in the House of Representatives on Monday dropped their demand for spending reductions to pay for extending a tax cut for 160 million American workers, setting up a likely breakthrough for agreement with Democrats.
The about-face cleared the way for the Republican-led House to vote this week to renew for 10 months the tax cut set to expire on February 29.
The Democratic-led Senate would likely support the payroll tax extension as laid out by the Republicans, even though they prefer including in the deal provisions on jobless benefits and payments for doctors treating Medicare patients that Republicans now want to negotiate separately.
Notably, the offer was issued by both House Speaker John Boehner, the top Republican, and his deputy Eric Cantor, who has often taken a more hardline approach in budget negotiations with Democrats over the past year.
Republicans made deficit reduction a rallying cry during last year's budget battles with Democrats that brought the U.S. government to the edge of a shutdown three times and cost the country its coveted AAA credit rating from the Standard & Poor's rating agency.
Dropping the demand for spending cuts to finance the payroll tax cut could draw fire from conservatives within the party who oppose adding to a trillion-plus deficit.
The decision, however, allows Republicans to put behind them an issue that has divided them and hurt their tax-cutting image among voters before the November elections.
"They folded," a senior Democratic aide said. "Republicans know their ongoing handwringing on getting their members to support this tax cut is a loser for them."
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
Can you imagine the deficit the next president is going to “inherit” from Barry the Kenyan Guy? I don’t even want to think about it.
Every Republican should vote “Present.”
“They folded.”
Of course they did. It`s what Republicans do best. Standing their ground isn`t their forte.
One is either born with balls or born without.
Bonehead and Cantor were born without.
Would somebody remind me why we voted for these morons
What's this "we" business? Blame Ohio for Boehner, and I don't know where the other one got elected.
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