As of now, I am in control here, in the White House

White House Caves on Payroll Tax Extension

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The White House this evening agreed to a two-month extension of the payroll tax cut, bowing to Republican demands that it include a provision forcing a faster decision on the whether to allow the Keystone pipeline to extend from Canada deep into the United States.

Obama and his Democratic allies had already given in on GOP demands that the extension be paid for with a new tax on upper income earners. In addition, the White House had also abandoned its effort to link the payroll tax to passage of a budget as a lever to try to keep Congress in town long enough to approve the payroll tax measure.

But with the limited extension, Obama salvages something of a political victory because he will soon be able to return to his campaign to seize the tax cutting high ground from Republicans. As negotiations for a further extension heat up again by  January, Obama is sure to revive accusations that Republicans don’t want to support tax cuts for average workers.

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25 Responses to White House Caves on Payroll Tax Extension

  1. Aloha Mr O

    nice timing-too late to take the same flight to Hawaii as the misses-darn we hate when that happens

    Keith do you have the numbers on the separate planes for this trip? Maybe we don’t want to know…

    FORE!

    • Well, I have hers at above $100,000, probably much more. Taking Air Force One and everyone else there costs much more. But the problem for me is not his flight – he’s from Hawaii and has the right to go visit there once a year – but her separate flight.

      • I don’t understand Keith what you mean by he has the “right” to visit once a year.?

        I was born in a different town than I am in now-I can drive there for a day but I can’t stay there-it is hours away.

        I never knew I had a right to go there-I never knew I needed that right-can I have 2+ weeks to go there without getting flak at my job?

        I don’t mean to be argumentative -this blog is an oasis in the desert of nonsense I am just surprised at your response.

      • How convenient that now he’s from Hawaii. I thought he was from Chicago when he was elected? Personally I’d allow him to take Greyhound back and forth, that’s about what we can afford.

      • Star has a good point, that he was there recently. But I really believe any president should be allowed to go home and recharge himself. We need our presidents in good psychological shape, whomever they are. I certainly wouldn’t countenance an annual Hawaii trip were he not from the state.

        • I am not so sure on why they need all these vacays–I am getting skeptical. They have everything done for them, the best food, 600 threadcount sheets, a doctor across the hall, Michelle even once remarked that the butlers were “sweatin’.” Yes–the free world’s safety theoretically is on their shoulders, but this doesn’t seem to stop the nightly martini fests and barbecue gobbles, although it would freeze ME in panic… If this man is tossing and turning like the poor half of the American people who see their lives basically trashed, I haven’t heard it. The vacations are more overindulgence, etc. Maybe they need fewer not more!

  3. Honestly, you’ve got to be kidding me. Wasn’t the trip originally supposed to be today- the 17th? That was what was originally stated.

    So, he’s going to leave ON TIME, and she left early.

    I don’t think the first family has a “right” to every little thing their hearts desire. They live such a life of luxury as it is. Is the white house and their catered life so horrible that they just HAVE to get away?

    How ’bout they try living the life of some Americans, whose daily existence certainly doesn’t meet the grandeur. Those poor little rich people. The existence in the White House must just be horrible.

  4. The Paper Tiger limps back into his lair. Folded like a lawn chair.
    Bluffed while holding a busted straight.
    MrO has lost the ability to demand, or even try, to lead Congress to do anything. He is a lame duck and both sides of the aisle know it.

    The long vacation in Hawaii is too much, to far away from the mainland. The arguments that “other Presidents” did this or even that don’t fly with the public. Times are bad out here in fly-over country and we expect our “leader” to set an example or, at least, show the solidarity that he claims with us.

    MrsO’s solo flight to Hawaii strikes the publc as a woman who cares nothing about her husband’s sense of duty, but thinks only of her own pleasure. A day or two delay in the start of their Hawaiin vacation should have meant nothing to a woman who doesn’t have a job or anywhere to be.
    All the PR the WhiteHouse can put out about the FLOTUS is made moot when she puts herself in her own plane.

  5. I’m glad Congress is at least forcing him to make a decision on the Keystone pipeline. Is it part of the 1,200 page “crap sandwich” Omnibus bill that nobody bothered to read before voting for yesterday? Guess we’ll find out what’s in it after we pass it eh Mr. Boehner? So disgusted with the DC establishment.

    • You’re not alone in your disgust with our elected officials. I just listened to national pollster say they have never had responses to polls on government as they get now. They don’t know what to make of the results or what it means for 2012. Poll after poll shows Americans distrust the government, have unfavorable views on ALL elected officials and want to replace them all. They’re predicting that 2012 will bring major changes on all levels.

      I have some idea that the miserable economy, coupled with the unemployment of millions of us, has a lot to do with the discontent. The major factor, IMO, is the availablity of alternate news on the Internet. We no longer rely on the MSM for their selective or biased reporting so we are able to see both sides of issues and find the stories that they ignore.

    • DC looks at the ratings and yawns. The feeling here is that Congress has long been unpopular and always will. But at the heart of this is a basic disrespect for the views of average citizens. And it cannot bode well for our system of government with so many people so disgusted.

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  9. I’m glad the extension was paid for. Shows what an unrealistic sob Obama is. We can’t possibly print more money out of thin air to ‘give’ to the American people like he did with Wall Street. The inflation is already too much to bear.