House GOP scraps direct vote on Senate payroll tax plan

NEW: A GOP source says House leaders want an "affirmative" vote NEW: Democrats say Republicans probably lack the votes to defeat the Senate plan The House delays the vote from Monday night until Tuesday Reid says Senate Democrats won't agree to House GOP demands to restart talks Washington (CNN) -- Republicans on the House rules committee have voted to prevent a direct vote Tuesday on a Senate plan favored by Democrats and Senate Republicans to extend the payroll tax cut for two months. By an 8-4 vote Monday night, the GOP-led panel rejected a Democratic amendment that would have held a vote on whether to approve the Senate plan, which is opposed by House Republican leaders. The committee then voted 8-4 in favor of Chairman Rep. David Dreier's proposal for the House to vote Tuesday morning on whether to call for a conference committee with Senate negotiators to work out a compromise on the payroll tax-cut legislation. Republican sources earlier told CNN that a direct vote on the two-month extension would likely be scrapped. Instead, the rules committee decided the House would vote on sending the issue to a conference committee, as well as a "sense of the House" resolution supporting a year-long extension of the payroll tax cut and other benefits in the negotiations Republicans are trying to force with the Senate. The change in the plans by House Republican leaders followed a two-hour meeting with their caucus and indicated confusion over how to proceed in the face of relentless pressure from the White House, Democrats and some Senate Republicans to accept the Senate plan that passed on a bipartisan 89-10 vote. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-California, told reporters that the effort by House Republicans to avoid a direct vote on the Senate m
easure probably meant they lacked enough support from their own members to defeat it, as called for by the GOP leadership. var currExpandable="expand18"; if(typeof CNN.expandableMap==='object'){CNN.expandableMap.push(currExpandable);} var mObj={}; mObj.type='video'; mObj.contentId=''; mObj.source='bestoftv/2011/12/18/exp-sotu-senators-12-18-blunt-menendez.cnn'; mObj.lgImage="http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/dam/assets/111218023500-exp-sotu-senators-12-18-blunt-menendez-00002901-story-body.jpg"; mObj.lgImageX=300; mObj.lgImageY=169; mObj.origImageX="214"; mObj.origImageY="120"; mObj.contentType='video'; CNN.expElements.expand18Store=mObj; Kicking the can down the road? var currExpandable="expand28"; if(typeof CNN.expandableMap==='object'){CNN.expandableMap.push(currExpandable);} var mObj={}; mObj.type='video'; mObj.contentId=''; mObj.source='bestoftv/2011/12/18/sotu-sterling-payroll-tax-extension.cnn'; mObj.lgImage="http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/dam/assets/111218024440-sotu-sterling-payroll-tax-extension-00000022-story-body.jpg"; mObj.lgImageX=300; mObj.lgImageY=169; mObj.origImageX="214"; mObj.origImageY="120"; mObj.contentType='video'; CNN.expElements.expand28Store=mObj; Sperling: Year-long tax relief possible "My guess is that they are afraid that their members are not going to stick with them," Pelosi said. In the 434-member chamber, where one seat is vacant, the 242-seat Republican majority can only afford 26 defections to overcome a unified 192-seat Democratic minority. Democratic Rep. James Clyburn of South Carolina said Monday night the party's caucus was 99% in support of the Senate measure. A House GOP leadership aide conceded to CNN that it is a "cleaner message" to simply vote to affirm the House position on extending the payroll tax cut for a year, instead of opposing a two-month extension. Another GOP aide said Republicans now believe it makes more sense for them to have an "affirmative vote" instead of a "negative one." Earlier, House GOP leaders announced that votes on the issue would take place Tuesday instead of Monday night, as originally planned. Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy, R-California, told reporters that it was better to hold the votes "not in the dark of night but in the light of day." The political drama followed a day of escalating brinksmanship as legislators stepped up their game of chicken over the expiring payroll tax cut. Democrats flatly rejected House Speaker John Boehner's demand to ditch the two-month extension passed by the Senate last week in favor of an immediate one-year continuation. Boehner and other GOP leaders argued that the two-month proposal amounts to a short-term fix instead of resolving the issue to provide certainty to American taxpayers and businesses. "We outright reject the attempt by the Senate to kick the can down for 60 days," Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Virginia, said after Monday night's caucus meeting. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, earlier blasted Boehner for allegedly abandoning the Senate compromise, which was forged when party leaders were unable to agree on the terms of a one-year plan and received strong bipartisan support in Saturday's 89-10 vote. "I negotiated a compromise (with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky) at Speaker Boehner's request. I will not reopen negotiations until the House follows through and passes this agreement that was negotiated by Republican leaders and supported by 90 percent of the Senate," Reid said. White House Press Secretary Jay Carney called Boehner's stance "nonsensical," stating that it "takes compromise to get something done" under divided government. "Americans paying attention to this must be pulling their hair out," Carney said. Boehner, however, said Monday night that "we disagreed with what the Senate produced." "They did their job," he said of his call last week for the Senate to send the House a proposal. "They produced a bill, and the House disagreed with it." At stake is the looming expiration of a tax break that is worth roughly $1,000 a year for an average family and affects roughly 160 million Americans. Congress also needs to address expiring emergency federal unemployment benefits and the renewal of the so-called "doc fix," a delay in significant scheduled pay cuts to Medicare physicians. All three measures are currently set to expire December 31. Boehner said Monday evening that he expected the GOP-controlled House to reject the Senate's two-month extension. He and other GOP leaders said the House would also vote on a motion to set up a conference committee with the Senate that would work out a compromise between the Senate plan and a House bill passed last week that calls for a one-year extension of the payroll tax cut. After Boehner spoke, the GOP-led rules committee decided over the objections of Democrats to hold the conference committee vote without a separate direct vote on the Senate plan. Both the House and Senate versions of the payroll tax-cut legislation also extend unemployment benefits and the doc fix, and the GOP plan also would push for presidential action on the proposed Keystone XL oil pipeline from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico. A conference committee would require the Democratic-controlled Senate to return from its holiday break. "Are you willing to work over the holidays?" asked Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, on Monday night, in reference to the Senate. Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, responded that the impasse involved an effort by House Republicans to oppose legislation backed by the White House and almost 90% of the Senate, including a strong majority of Senate Republicans. "With millions of Americans struggling to make ends meet, it would be unconscionable for Speaker Boehner to block a bipartisan agreement that would protect middle-class families from the thousand-dollar tax increase looming on January first," Reid said in a statement Monday night. Pelosi, meanwhile, said she had no intention of appointing members to a conference committee without getting an opportunity for a direct vote on the Senate proposal. Both Pelosi and Reid said such negotiations should happen when Congress returns from its holiday recess in January, after the Senate's two-month payroll tax-cut extension has passed. Rep. Steny Hoyer of Maryland, the No. 2 House Democrat, said the maneuvers by House Republicans showed they never supported a payroll tax increase in the first place. On Monday, at least five mostly moderate Republican senators voiced disapproval with the possible defeat of the Senate plan, demonstrating increasing pressure on House Republicans to pass it. The group included Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown, Maine Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, Indiana Sen. Richard Lugar and Nevada Sen. Dean Heller. "During this time of divided government, both parties need to be reasonable and come to the negotiating table in good faith," said Brown, who is facing a stiff re-election challenge in heavily Democratic Massachusetts next year. "We cannot allow rigid partisan ideology and unwillingness to compromise stand in the way of working together for the good of the American people." Meanwhile, five Democratic senators called on House Republicans to pass the Senate plan in order to speed up approval of the Keystone pipeline under a provision demanded by Republican negotiators. The $33 billion Senate bill -- which only covers the payroll tax cut, unemployment benefits, and the doc fix through the end of February -- is facing fierce resistance from House conservatives upset with both the temporary nature of the bill and its impact on funding for Social Security. An earlier House version of the measure -- which would have continued the payroll tax cut for a year, among other things -- was never brought to a vote in the Senate. Democrats and Republicans remain at sharp odds over how to pay for a full 12-month extension. Congressional Democratic leaders insist the Republican-led House will be blamed for a year-end increase in working Americans' tax bills if it fails to go along with the Senate. "This is a pass-the-popcorn moment for Democrats," one senior congressional Democratic leadership aide told CNN Monday. "Boehner has been hung out to dry by his caucus, and we are not going to save him." CNNMoney: What happens if payroll tax cut is not extended? The Senate's two-month extension was a fallback position after Democrats and Republicans were unable to reach a more long term, comprehensive agreement. Boehner appears to have reversed himself since a conference call with caucus members Saturday, when he was the only House Republican leader to express support for the Senate plan, according to a GOP source. The source said Boehner described the Senate vote as "a good deal" and "a victory" in the conference call. For his part, the speaker insisted Monday that he raised concerns about the Senate plan "from the moment I heard of it." Boehner said he only praised a provision in the Senate bill requiring presidential action on the Keystone pipeline. "The rank-and-file members are extremely opposed" to the Senate plan, a GOP source stressed, adding that most members were concerned with the uncertainty caused by just a two-month extension, as well as the political benefit the White House could gain in the national dialogue over taxes. The two-month measure, which passed the Senate on Saturday, would reduce the deficit by nearly $3 billion, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Under the plan, its $33 billion in costs would be offset by an increase in fees that new homeowners with federally backed mortgages will pay to Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Federal Housing Administration. Those entities would then turn that money over to the U.S. Treasury. The bump amounts to about $15 per month for every $200,000 borrowed, Senate aides estimated. if(typeof CNN.expElements==='object'){CNN.expElements.init();} CNN's Athena Jones, Rebecca Stewart, Deirdre Walsh, Ted Barrett, Kate Bolduan, Dana Bash, and Erin Burnett contributed to this report.

House GOP scraps direct vote on Senate payroll tax plan 2011-12-19T23:15:00-08:00 Rating: 4.5 Diposkan Oleh: Undercover 999