الرئيسية
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate voted Saturday to temporarily avert a
Jan. 1 payroll tax increase and benefit cutoff for the long-time
unemployed, forcing a reluctant President Barack Obama to make an
election-year choice between unions and environmentalists over whether
to build an oil pipeline through the heart of the country.
The action set up a House vote Monday on the legislation.
With
the still-reeling economy serving as a backdrop, the Senate's 89-10
vote belied a tortuous battle between Democrats and Republicans that
produced the compromise two-month extension of the expiring tax breaks
and jobless benefits and forestalled cuts in doctors' Medicare
reimbursements.
It also capped a year of divided government marked
by raucous partisan fights that tumbled to the brink of a first-ever
U.S. default and three federal shutdowns, only to see eleventh-hour
deals emerge. It also put the two sides on track to revisit the payroll
tax cut early next year as the fights for control of the White House and
Congress heat up.
However, House GOP leaders held a conference
call Saturday with rank-and-file lawmakers in which participants said
strong anger was expressed about the Senate bill, including its lack of
House-approved cuts in last year's health care overhaul law and its
failure to erase the reductions in doctors' payments for more than two
months.
"You can't have an economic recovery with this," said Rep.
Jack Kingston, R-Ga., said of the bill "If the Senate is incapable of
doing that, we don't have to accept it."
Jan. 1 payroll tax increase and benefit cutoff for the long-time
unemployed, forcing a reluctant President Barack Obama to make an
election-year choice between unions and environmentalists over whether
to build an oil pipeline through the heart of the country.
The action set up a House vote Monday on the legislation.
With
the still-reeling economy serving as a backdrop, the Senate's 89-10
vote belied a tortuous battle between Democrats and Republicans that
produced the compromise two-month extension of the expiring tax breaks
and jobless benefits and forestalled cuts in doctors' Medicare
reimbursements.
It also capped a year of divided government marked
by raucous partisan fights that tumbled to the brink of a first-ever
U.S. default and three federal shutdowns, only to see eleventh-hour
deals emerge. It also put the two sides on track to revisit the payroll
tax cut early next year as the fights for control of the White House and
Congress heat up.
However, House GOP leaders held a conference
call Saturday with rank-and-file lawmakers in which participants said
strong anger was expressed about the Senate bill, including its lack of
House-approved cuts in last year's health care overhaul law and its
failure to erase the reductions in doctors' payments for more than two
months.
"You can't have an economic recovery with this," said Rep.
Jack Kingston, R-Ga., said of the bill "If the Senate is incapable of
doing that, we don't have to accept it."