Boehner Has Quite The Xmas Present For His Disheveled Caucus

Friday the Senate passed a two-month payroll tax extension 89-10, after Boehner reportedly gave McConnell his proxy to negotiate a deal. Purists on each side of the aisle voted NO-- Bernie Sandler and Jim DeMint, for example. But then House backbenchers lost their collective mind and threatened Boehner and Cantor, claiming it was a bad deal for them (which it was). They're furious that McConnell had agreed to scrap spending cuts and reductions in unemployment benefits that the Democrats opposed. Their payoff was pretty innocuous, and with the Keystone language coming nowhere near forcing the pipeline through as their leadership tried to claim.

So on MTP this morning Boehner actually tried to tank the deal and demand everybody come back and strike a new deal. Reid laughed in his face and and told him to deal with the compromise the Senate worked out and passed with an overwhelming bipartisan margin. The Senate's gone and Boehner's caucus is flipping out at the White House, which put out this postby Jennifer Palmieri, a Deputy Communications Director:

The President believes this is a make or break moment for the middle class, and that's why he is determined to protect the payroll tax cut for millions of American families.



Yesterday, after some tough negotiations and months of Republican opposition, the Senate came to a bipartisan compromise that extends the payroll tax cut and unemployment insurance benefits. This bill received 89 votes, including 39 Republican votes. We’re pleased that Republicans were finally showing a willingness to not raise taxes on middle class families.
 


The near 90 percent approval by the Senate demonstrates the view by the overwhelming number of Senate Republicans-- as well as Democrats-- that the best way to achieve the President’s goal of ensuring that taxes were not increased on 160 million working Americans and protecting unemployment insurance benefits for 2.5 million people was to support this bipartisan compromise.
 


Speaker Boehner himself yesterday called it a “good deal” and a “victory.” After it passed, Senator Hatch said, “This is probably a done deal in the House; it should be.” Well, we couldn’t agree more.
 


Yesterday Senator McConnell said, “in order to achieve something around here, you've got to compromise… What we've done here is crafted a bill not designed to fail but designed to pass.”
 


On CNN Sen. Blunt said, “I think the House has to deal with it and look at the fact that it was paid for, it extends not just the payroll tax but also the unemployment insurance.”



It’s time for House Republicans to listen to the American people, and their colleagues in the Senate. It’s time for them too stop playing politics and get the job done. If they refuse to pass this bipartisan bill to extend the payroll tax cut, there will be a significant tax increase on 160 million hardworking Americans in 13 days that would damage the economy and job growth. That’s unacceptable. They need to get to work and finish the job.

Chuck Schumer rubbed Boehner's snout in the poop: "In a nutshell, this is what is responsible for the dysfunction in Congress. If Speaker Boehner were fully in charge, we wouldn't constantly see this kind of brinksmanship, but he doesn't have control of his troops in the House."