Payroll Tax Cut: 'Wall Street Journal' Editorial Rips GOP

Payroll Tax Cut Fight: 'Wall Street Journal' Editorial Rips Boehner, McConnell

The Wall Street Journal editorial page attacked congressional Republicans Wednesday for possibly losing the payroll tax cut standoff to President Barack Obama.

The editorial begins :

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.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/2 ... 62633.html

They just can't help themselves... rofllol

But I, for one, appreciate it. Leave it to the GOP to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory...

A "progressive" blaming Republicans in an editorial with which another "progressive" concurs. That, my friends, is newsworthy enough that we should all mark this day on our calendars so that our posterity can be informed of the historic event that took place this day.

PrintSmith wrote: A "progressive" blaming Republicans in an editorial with which another "progressive" concurs. That, my friends, is newsworthy enough that we should all mark this day on our calendars so that our posterity can be informed of the historic event that took place this day.

It's hard to tell if you are talking about the actual Wall Street Journal editorial or the Huffington Post article about it. I assume it's the WSJ editorial since that's what the subject is about.

Anyway, it's hard to call the WSJ "progressive". They tend to be fiscally conservative.

I tend to agree the Republicans are making a big mistake here because they've given the Dems a great opportunity to demonize them, especially after the Repubs in the Senate already approved it by a big margin (and Boehner appears to of reversed himself). But time will tell.

The most interesting thing to me is what will happen with the huge, approx 27%, cut in Medicare payments to doctors which appears to go with this bill. Congress has been delaying that for years. I think something has to give because I just don't see that actually happening.

I think the GOP made a big mistake. They should have agreed to extend these cuts for a whole year.

The Liberals GOP Twin wrote: I think the GOP made a big mistake. They should have agreed to extend these cuts for a whole year.

That, in fact, is the legislation which passed the GOP controlled House. Not a stopgap measure, as in the Senate, but a full year's extension of the tax holiday. It is the Democrats, not the GOP, that have failed to find a solution thus far for a full year's extension of the tax rate reduction. I, personally, think the Republican Senators made a mistake in helping to pass a mere two month's extension instead of holding Reid's feet to the fire and requiring good faith efforts to iron out a compromise that encompassed an entire year. No sense at all in removing the pressure of an ensuing deadline for the benefit of the Democrats when they persist in digging in their heels that I can see. Why, the Democrats in the House wouldn't even send any representatives to the effort whose goal was to see if there was some common ground with the Senate version that could be found that the Senate would also find agreeable. Compromise requires two sides to give up some ground, otherwise it is not a compromise, it is a concession. A concession on this matter would do far more damage than a refusal to concede simply for political expediency would entail at this point.

What good is to be had from a mere 60 day extension for the citizens of the union or the businesses which employ them? Does it somehow alleviate the general atmosphere of uncertainty for either of them? I should think not, in fact one would expect the opposite effect from such a stopgap measure - a continuation of the existing uncertainty and all that it entails.

pineinthegrass wrote:

PrintSmith wrote: A "progressive" blaming Republicans in an editorial with which another "progressive" concurs. That, my friends, is newsworthy enough that we should all mark this day on our calendars so that our posterity can be informed of the historic event that took place this day.

It's hard to tell if you are talking about the actual Wall Street Journal editorial or the Huffington Post article about it. I assume it's the WSJ editorial since that's what the subject is about.

Anyway, it's hard to call the WSJ "progressive". They tend to be fiscally conservative.

I tend to agree the Republicans are making a big mistake here because they've given the Dems a great opportunity to demonize them, especially after the Repubs in the Senate already approved it by a big margin (and Boehner appears to of reversed himself). But time will tell.

The most interesting thing to me is what will happen with the huge, approx 27%, cut in Medicare payments to doctors which appears to go with this bill. Congress has been delaying that for years. I think something has to give because I just don't see that actually happening.

That WAS the point of the article, and if he had clicked on the link (which I provided) he would have seen that it was the VERY CONSERVATIVE WSJ which wrote the editorial... Well, you can lead a conservative to water, but you can't make him drink.

More and more Republicans are coming out and criticizing Boehner and his inability to control and lead the outta control tea partiers that seem to be calling the shots for him.

Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) said Wednesday that Republicans are losing the public-relations battle over a payroll tax cut extension and should find a way to extend the tax holiday and move on.

"Are Republicans getting killed now in public opinion? There's no question," Corker said Wednesday on CNBC.

Joining four other Republican senators in criticizing their House counterparts, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) said on CNN today that Speaker John Boehner’s (R-OH) payroll tax extension standoff is “harming the Republican party” and harming Americans’ view of Congress:

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Sen. Richard Lugar (R-IN) joined Brown in urging the House to pass the compromise. “I’m hopeful — maybe without basis — that the House of Representatives will pass the bill the Senate passed and they will do so tonight,” he told MSNBC host Andrea Mitchell. “”Speaker Boehner is under enormous pressure. He’s obviously gotten a lot of feedback from many Republicans who say we simply don’t like it….But I’m hopeful that our majority, Republicans and Democrats, today will proceed, because, it seems to me this is best for the country as well as for all the individuals who are affected.”
[youtube:2hqfc49a][/youtube:2hqfc49a]

Sen. Scott Brown: House GOP’s Refusal To Pass Payroll Tax Compromise Is ‘Irresponsible And Wrong’ | In another nod to the strength of his Senate opponent, consumer advocate Elizabeth Warren, Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA) blasted Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) and House Republicans for jeopardizing the payroll tax cut and unemployment benefits, saying the House GOP’s stand is “irresponsible and wrong.” “[A] two-month extension is a good deal when it means we avoid jeopardizing the livelihoods of millions of American families. The refusal to compromise now threatens to increase taxes on hard-working Americans and stop unemployment benefits for those out of work,” he said. “We cannot allow rigid partisan ideology and unwillingness to compromise stand in the way of working together for the good of the American people.”

GOP Sen. Dean Heller (NV) expressed similar impatience with the House GOP: “There is no reason to hold up the short-term extension.”

GOP Sen. Olympia Snowe (ME) joined in: “I spoke out against this unprecedented two-month policymaking experiment on Saturday. That said, there wasn’t an indication that the House would be in disagreement with the Senate’s action. Nonetheless, what is paramount at this point is that this tax benefit for hardworking Americans not be allowed to lapse.”

All political BS. A 2 month extension with the strange provisions it includes would/will be a nightmare to administer, and is totally unnecessary if our elected officials (both parties) would do their d*mn jobs!

The way they have messed this up I'm real glad that I am no longer involved in selling/supporting accounting software!

This fiasco is another example of how business unfriendly this administration, which includes members of both parties, is.

It wasn't the administration that asked for a 2 month extension... They asked for a year...(and have on several occasions). It's the Do-Nothing Republicans that said they wouldn't go for more than a 2-month extension...and then they even reneged on that.

It's so hard to keep it straight when the game-plan changes daily, based on "What can we do to block Obama today?"

Yes, with all the lies floating around it is hard to keep track.

As I understand it, and may be wrong, President Obama requested a one year extension, the Republican controlled House passed a one year extension, the Democratic controlled Senate passed a 2 month extension, then split for the holidays so they wouldn't have to talk about it anymore.