Payroll Tax | featured news

President Obama's aides are seeking to pressure House Republicans in the hours leading up to a vote tonight on a two-month extension of the payroll tax cut, saying an adverse decision will subject nearly 160 million Americans to a tax hike next year.

Congressional negotiators reached agreement Thursday on a compromise spending bill to avert a weekend federal shutdown. They also worked toward a deal renewing the payroll tax cut and unemployment benefits for another year but prepared a shorter version as a fallback in case talks fell short.

Senate Republicans have thwarted a quick vote sought Wednesday by Democrats on a House-passed GOP bill to extend the payroll tax cut. Democrats called for the ballot to prove that the measure doesn’t have the votes to pass the chamber they control. In seeking the vote, Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid said that the Senate needed to kill the House bill, which was approved Tuesday, to negotiate a settlement to the protracted partisan fight.

President Barack Obama on Friday pledged an aggressive push to pass an extension to the payroll tax cut for U.S. workers, saying lawmakers must not leave for their holiday break without taking action on it.

News flash: Congressional Republicans want to raise your taxes. Impossible, right? GOP lawmakers are so virulently anti-tax, surely they will fight to prevent a payroll tax increase on virtually every wage-earner starting Jan. 1, right?