The payroll tax battle gets worse
I don鈥檛 know if anyone can figure out what鈥檚 going on with the payroll tax/HI negotiations, but here鈥檚 what I can glean from the raucous noise that is our Congress at work:
鈥�the House R鈥檚 won鈥檛 vote on the bipartisan Senate bill, for reasons I don鈥檛 quite get.聽 It looks like Rep Boehner doesn鈥檛 have the votes to defeat the Senate bill, so I guess he鈥檇 look bad, but he already looks terrible.聽 All America can see right now is an unbelievably feckless Congress underperforming expectations that are already abysmally low.聽 So, passing the Senate bill, even if it鈥檚 just a two month extension, saying you鈥檒l get fight again another day, getting your sorry butts out of here, seems like the smart move.
鈥�there鈥檚 a rising likelihood that the UI extensions and payroll tax cut expire.聽 I鈥檓 hearing some whispering to the tune of 鈥渉ey, it won鈥檛 be so bad if we rush back in Jan and pass them鈥e can make them retroactive.鈥澛� Um鈥o.聽 It will be awfully bad for almost 2 million UI recipients who could be dropped from the UI rolls.聽 And most of them have been jobless for at least half a year, so it鈥檚 unlikely they鈥檝e got much to fall back on.聽 Also, it鈥檚 no picnic for businesses to have to adjust payrolls to plug back in the 2% cut that expires at the end of this year.
鈥搕his isn鈥檛 about providing more help to workers and the unemployed.聽 The House R鈥檚 are tying to frame this meltdown like it鈥檚 all about making sure those struggling with the still weak economy need a year extension, not two months.聽 I agree that a two month extension is extremely goofy.聽 But we鈥檙e stuck there because these same House Rs injected a bottle of poison pills into their bill, including up to 40 fewer weeks of UI, drug testing and educational requirements聽for UI recips, delaying environmental standards, whacking federal workers, and cutting implementation funds for the Affordable Care Act.
鈥�democracy takes a holiday: Here are two rules from the House Republicans on how they plan to proceed on this issue:
Section 1 of the rule:
5. Waives all points of order against consideration of the resolution and provides that it shall be considered as read.
6. Waives all points of order against provisions in the resolution.
This is informally called 鈥渂lanket martial law鈥� because it basically means all the normal rules governing debate on legislation are suspended and the House can do what it wants when it wants.聽 D鈥檚 have used this too, btw, but this time it鈥檚 in place through the middle of next month.聽 I suspect that鈥檚 the longest period over which this blatantly undemocratic measure has been in place.
Dysfunction, thy name is the 112 Congress.
