Harry Reid, Payroll Tax Cut | featured news

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.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) plans to introduce a compromise measure Monday to extend the payroll tax cut, according to a key Senate Democrat. “Majority Leader Reid called me yesterday and said he will propose tomorrow a compromise plan to extend the payroll tax cut,” Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) said on “Fox News Sunday.” “He will offer it at that point – I don’t think it’s probably in my purview to announce his plan – but he indicated to me it will be paid for. It will be paid for in a serious way.”