Dec 21, 2011

First Reviews Are In: House Republicans Skewered for Raising Taxes on Middle Income Taxpayers

The first reviews are coming in from Editorial Boards across the country skewering House Republicans for forcing a $1,000 tax hike on 160 million middle income Americans on January 1st. Thirty-nine Senate Republicans voted for a bipartisan agreement, but House Republicans voted to allow lawmakers to leave for a holiday vacation and block a payroll tax cut extension.

Take a look for yourself.

The GOP's Payroll Tax Fiasco [Wall Street Journal]
“If Republicans didn’t want to extend the payroll tax cut on the merits, then they should have put together a strategy and the arguments for defeating it and explained why. […] But now Republicans are drowning out that victory in the sounds of their circular firing squad. Already four GOP Senators have rejected the House position, and the political rout will only get worse. […] At this stage, Republicans would do best to cut their losses and find a way to extend the payroll holiday quickly.” [Wall Street Journal Editorial, 12/21/11]

Putting Paychecks at Risk [New York Times]
“If the House had actually voted on Tuesday on the two-month extension of the payroll tax cut in the Senate’s bill, there is a chance that it would have passed. […] But the House refused to vote on the compromise. Instead, it voted on a piece of parliamentary trickery devised by Speaker John Boehner and his lieutenants to ensure the tax cut couldn’t possibly pass. […] As a result, it looks increasingly likely that the payroll tax cut will end on Jan. 1, along with extended unemployment insurance for three million jobless workers. In a year full of dangerous standoffs, led by extremist House members, this one may be the most intractable.” [New York Times Editorial, 12/21/11]

House divided -- and it's gridlock again [Newsday]
“As 2011 draws to a close, nobody knows whether the payroll tax holiday will continue for millions of Americans or if jobless benefits will end for millions more. While the public sweats economic stagnation and unemployment, Congress is going home for the holidays with those critical pieces of the public's business undone. But this time it's not partisan warfare that's to blame for Washington's tiresome dysfunction. The fault lies with congressional Republicans. They're at war with themselves.” [Newsday Editorial, 12/20/11]

Boehner's brinksmanship [Los Angeles Times]
“The House speaker objects to the Senate payroll tax compromise, but his complaints about it ring hollow. It's only fitting that House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) would close the year with one more act of brinksmanship. […] Considering how incapable Congress has been this year of smart long-term policymaking, Boehner's complaints about the short-term nature of the deal ring hollow, especially in light of the concessions the GOP won on the pipeline. His caucus seems addicted to crises, so it should come as no surprise that it would gin up another one instead of adjourning for the holidays.” [Los Angeles Times Editorial, 12/20/11]

Payroll tax: Congress opts for partisanship instead of what's best for Americans [Patriot-News]
“The art of legislation is to push your principles as far as you can while the other party pushes theirs. In the end, you get some — if not all — of what you want, and make certain it doesn’t violate your core values. In this case, House Republicans got nearly everything they want. They simply didn’t get it for as long as they want. And for this, they are willing to play brinkmanship or hit half of America with a tax increase.” [Patriot-News Editorial, 12/21/11]

GOP in a corner, opposing tax cut [Paris-Post Intelligencer]
“What’s odd is that the Social Security tax issue seems much like the argument over extending Bush-era income tax cuts for everyone. That has been a primary goal of the GOP, which has adamantly opposed Democratic efforts to end those tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans. Republicans now are demanding spending reductions elsewhere to offset the loss of revenue from the Social Security tax reduction. They didn’t do that for George W. Bush’s income tax cuts. […] The situation cries for our elected leaders to work together for a solution.” [Paris-Post Intelligencer Editorial, 12/20/11]

A tax-cut stalemate [The Register-Guard]
“House Speaker John Boehner and other GOP leaders should back off their ill-advised brinksmanship and insist that their unruly caucus support the Senate’s bipartisan deal for a stopgap extension of payroll tax cuts and jobless benefits. Ironically, Boehner originally agreed to the Senate deal, which had the backing of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky. Boehner reportedly urged his caucus to accept it, only to have tea party members and other hardline conservatives reject the short-term deal because they believed that the GOP should have wrung more concessions from Democrats. […] The speaker should order the Senate bill to the floor and House members, both Republicans and Democrats, should approve it to make sure the payroll tax cut and jobless benefits don’t lapse on Jan. 1.” [The Register-Guard Editorial, 12/21/11]

Crisis looms, politics persist [Commercial Appeal]
“The widening gap between members of Congress and ordinary Americans yawns some more in the current standoff in Washington over the proposed extension of the payroll tax cut […] Arkansas and Mississippi workers are taking home an estimated $800 million more in each state because of the cut, which if extended would save the average American family $1,000 next year. That is money that would go into working people's households to help fuel an economic recovery that is far from complete. It's money that members of both political parties and independents, as well, want to see in the hands of working people.  No one is against the idea. And yet the Republican-led House of Representatives continues to toy with the legislation -- and the emotions of anxious Americans -- by passing legislation with a veritable Christmas tree of riders designed to make ideological points.” [Commercial Appeal Editorial, 12/15/11]

The wealth gap [Charleston Gazette]
“A major issue in next year's presidential election is expected to be the worsening gap between the few wealthy Americans and the sinking middle class […] Republicans are firmly allied to the top elite - the 1 percent - and often scuttle Democratic efforts to aid the rest of society […] Meanwhile, million-dollar incomes of the rich few at the top keep doubling and redoubling. Republicans in Congress adamantly block Democratic efforts to collect more taxes from the privileged clique to help other Americans. This deserves to be a prime campaign issue next year.” [Charleston Gazette Editorial, 12/15/11]

No way to conduct people’s business [The Miami Herald]
“Congress should get rid of side issues and pass Social Security tax cut, unemployment benefits […] In the usual frenzy before the holidays, lawmakers in Washington have once again packed a variety of questionable proposals […] Tucked away in these measures under consideration as the clock ticks down toward year’s end are unrelated proposals, usually with an ideological component […] This is no way to conduct the people’s business […] If lawmakers want to get in the spirit of the season, they could hardly do better than to pass this legislation free of extraneous provisions and remind Americans that Congress is still capable of doing the right thing now and again.” [Miami Herald Editorial, 12/14/11]

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