Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is standing his ground against John Boehner and the House Republicans, saying he will not agree to renegotiate year-long extension of jobless benefits and payroll taxcuts – unless House Republicans agree to a two-month bipartisan version, something that they are loathe to do.
Reid’s comments on the subject serve to ring the bell for another round of boxing in the long-suffering struggle between House and Senate. Speaker Boehner is confident that the House will reject the two-month plan tonight, despite its passing the Senate with strong support on both sides of the aisle, as well as the blessing of President Barack Obama.
After Saturday’s vote, House Republicans banded together in opposition of the two-month plan, voicing their disapproval of the Senate-approved bill. Once the bill fails in the House, as Speaker Boehner expects, he will request immediate negotiations for the year-long extension House Republicans are fighting for.
Speaker Boehner said at a news conference:
“It’s time to stop the nonsense. We can resolve these differences and we can do it in a way that provides certainty for job creators and others,”
Although both sides continually express a desire to somehow find compromise, get everything they want, catch all that lightning in a bottle and hope it doesn’t explode in their faces, one can’t help but wonder if politicians on all sides are just stalling until the next election is secured. Anymore, watching the political tug-o-war see-saw back and forth over the line of “compromise” is a lot like going to a department store and looking at the same sample photograph in several different frames.
And now to you, short-term payroll tax-cut or year-long payroll tax-cut? Or are there bigger issues on your mind?
