Reid Hopes Payroll Tax Cut Debacle a ‘Learning Experience’ for House Freshman
EmailIn session for a whopping 1 minute, 28 seconds, the Senate today passed by unanimous consent the updated, slightly tweaked version of the two-month payroll tax cut extension.
Hailing this as a “new day,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., celebrated and then appointed, as the compromise called for, his designees for the conference committee to negotiate a year-long payroll tax deal. The appointees are: Sens. Max Baucus, D-Mont.; Ben Cardin, D-Md.; Jack Reed, D-R.I.; and Bob Casey, D-Pa.
The group will lose no time in getting down to work.
”They’re going to work expeditiously to come up with a long-term arrangement on the payroll tax, on unemployment, of course, and on the doc fix,” Reid said. “I have instructed my staff to get me together with them sometime next week.”
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., will announce his three picks for the committee soon, likely later today, according to his office.
Reid left with departing messages to Republicans: His message to the Republican leader in the Senate should really be interpreted as for the House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio: ”Most everything we do around here is based on trust,” Reid said. “That’s how we get things done. And I want everyone to understand how much I appreciate Mitch McConnell sticking by the arrangement, the agreement that we made. ”
Reid then sent another message to the House Republican freshman, who’ve been a consistent thorn in his, and even his fellow Republicans’ sides, during the final days of closing out the deal in Congress.
”I hope this Congress has had a very good learning experience, especially those who are newer to this body. Everything we do around here does not have to wind up in a fight. That isn’t the way things need to be.”
Reid said that most of what Congress did this year had been a “knock-down, drag-out fight,” and there’s no reason why it should remain that way next year.
”I would hope, especially, I repeat, the new members of the House will understand that that legislation is the art of compromise, consensus building, not trying to push your way through on issues [for which] you don’t have the support of the American people.”
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Will he be celebrating come Jan.1st 2013, when curtesy of the democrats and the President we will see the biggest tax increase in history. Better save the 20 or 40 dollars you get. But i guess Reid believes the world will end Dec.21, 2012.
Posted by: Lizzie | December 23, 2011, 12:07 pm 12:07 pm
Maybe old pathetic career politicians like Harry Reid learned something ? I seriously doubt it ! It’s time for him to retire, and live off all those millions he has stashed away ! Now, lets hear from his ilk !
Posted by: DUH ! | December 23, 2011, 12:08 pm 12:08 pm
Just think how much better we’d all be if they negotiated months ago. The House GOP need to keep this humbling moment of “Boehner’s Blunder” with them and remember “COMPROMISE” is the fuel that keeps are government moving forward
Posted by: MTATL67 | December 23, 2011, 12:11 pm 12:11 pm
The House Freshman have upped their game… now Harry Reid… up yours!
Posted by: michelle shu jas | December 23, 2011, 12:12 pm 12:12 pm
MTATL67, when will the democrats compromize??? All we hear from them, my way or the highway, do as your told, we speak you listen, we hold the majority in 2 branches of the government. We know best on how to waste taxpayers money.
Posted by: Lizzie | December 23, 2011, 12:25 pm 12:25 pm
“Reid Hopes Payroll Tax Cut Debacle a ‘Learning Experience’ for House Freshman”……Harry, I think you need to relearn Civics 101. When there is a difference between the House and Senate bills, the proper procedure is to “conference” and compromise on the difference – not jam your sides position up the arse of your opponent. What a perfect remedial civics education opportunity that has been missed.
Posted by: deanbob | December 23, 2011, 12:28 pm 12:28 pm
“…understand that that legislation is the art of compromise, consensus building, not trying to push your way through on issues [for which] you don’t have the support of the American people.” That’s the issue, independents are in this also, and if the republican constituency were up in arms, that says quite a bit. But this goes both ways, and hope the dems take their own advice, listen to the American people. Propaganda goes only so far they don’t realize this but eventually it will turn on them 10 fold, karma.
Posted by: emerald_sparks | December 23, 2011, 12:31 pm 12:31 pm
And in 10 months we’ll have to live through this nonsense again. So how is the shortfall (to Social Security) being funded? Will this payroll tax holiday EVER go away? Who would vote for that? I sense that everyone will be screwed by this at some point in time. But as usual, our elected officials in D.C. will kick that can down the road. Another $10 or $20 TRILLION added to the national debt over the next 10 years. No problem. We’ll just keep mortgaging the US to China. What could possible go wrong with that line of wisdom? All who are up for reelection in Nov. 2012 should be sane or lose their seat. Does that not make sense?
Posted by: s | December 23, 2011, 12:35 pm 12:35 pm
Lizzie: ROFL!!! Ah lets see Boehner’s “I got 98% of what I wanted” S&P downgrade. Seems the last compromise didn’t do well. American’s are fearful of the tea party and believe their caucas given too much power will bring us to a depression. The republicans want more in the fund so they have more to raid for their pet projects, if they want it paid for, time to tax those who benefit from this economy the most, especially the oil. And the idle rich as far as capital gains are not job creators.
Posted by: emerald_sparks | December 23, 2011, 12:37 pm 12:37 pm
EMERALD_SPARKS | DECEMBER 23, 2011, 12:31 PM ….. “Propaganda goes only so far they don’t realize this but eventually it will turn on them 10 fold, karma.”…I agree. And since we have not learned from history, we following the path of acncient Rome and are reapping the same reward Rome did.
Posted by: deanbob | December 23, 2011, 12:41 pm 12:41 pm
Harry Reid is way too optimistic. Teaching these tea partiers anything is equivalent to trying to teach the Germans in 1930 that the Jews weren’t responsible for their economic troubles. The tea party is the biggest political disaster this country has faced since Joe McCarthy.
Posted by: tmferretti | December 23, 2011, 12:58 pm 12:58 pm
The grand poobah, the wise sage, the grand assessor has spoken!
Posted by: newcountryman | December 23, 2011, 1:02 pm 1:02 pm
Reid is a joke. What does he want the freshmen to do, start spending out of control like a bunch of idiots.We already have Pelosi, Reid and Obama for that, we don’t need more. Thank heavens Pelosi has been put on a shelf, but more work needs to be done.
Posted by: specialty57 | December 23, 2011, 1:03 pm 1:03 pm
Tmferretti (12:58 PM); You could always get a contingency of marines to go root them out.
Posted by: newcountryman | December 23, 2011, 1:04 pm 1:04 pm
Removing the title of majority leader from this thug is job one in 2012. I pledge never to set foot in Nevada as long as this man represents them.
Posted by: foggy | December 23, 2011, 1:05 pm 1:05 pm
tm…merry christmas. regarding the tea party being the biggest political disaster….they are pesky but i guess they are just listening to their constituients. on the flip side pelosi and pals were pretty disasterous and would hate to what this country would be like if she and her party were in the majority of the house over the past year. may we all have a good next year.
Posted by: catman | December 23, 2011, 1:05 pm 1:05 pm
TFERRETTI, I would have to say as a dangerous party that G. Soros’s progressive liberal party is the worst thing that has happened to this country. People are not paying attention or do not see the writing on the wall of Soros’s dream of a New World Order. Obama is just his pawn, Soros is behind this.
Posted by: specialty57 | December 23, 2011, 1:10 pm 1:10 pm
The founding fathers knew the nature of man had not changed from day 1 and would never change. That is why the constitution was written the way is was: if the power is not EXPLICITLTY defined, then the power is not granted to the Federal govt. The Tea Party wants the congress to obey the constitution. Obama, the alleged constitutional scholar that he is, has chosen repeated to ignore the constitution. In fact, he has complained that constitution limits what he can do.
Posted by: deanbob | December 23, 2011, 1:25 pm 1:25 pm
CATMAN AND SPECIALTY57.
Merry Christmas and a good New Year
The tea party needs to learn what I taught my kids many years ago and what I hope my kids are teaching my grand children. You can’t have everything you want all the time. We can slam politicians but even our founders were politicians. Good ones learn to compromise and adjust to do what is good for this country. The tea party thinks our whole country should just embrace their right wing views.
The tea party is intimidating House members, and like any bully they need someone to kick their ass until they find out they can’t have it their way all the time.
Posted by: tmferretti | December 23, 2011, 1:26 pm 1:26 pm
The delusional Harry Reid. Now he wants us to believe that Republicans wanted to increase taxes on working Americans because the party has been “hijacked” by…radical tax cutters.
Posted by: tc | December 23, 2011, 1:33 pm 1:33 pm
TMFERRETTI, those pesky teapartiers trying to take away the unlimited CC from the democrats, lets just put all those terrorists (VP bidens words) in jail or better yet deport them.
Emeral….. lets wait a little until we rewrite history or are you in line with Pres.Obama who believes he is the 4th greatest President in history. Have a Merry Christmas, better yet save the 20 or 40 dollars you receive over the next two month, because Jan 1st, 2013 you and everyone will see the biggest tax increase in history, curtesy of the present administration, i guess you and your liberal friends believe that the world will end Dec.21, 2012
Posted by: Lizzie | December 23, 2011, 1:34 pm 1:34 pm
tmferretti wrote:”You can’t have everything you want all the time.”
.
Lot easier just to elect DEMOCRATS and let them give you everything you want at the expense of the producers in this country. We are seeing the results of your type of teaching. It will not end well.
Posted by: michelle shu jas | December 23, 2011, 1:38 pm 1:38 pm
Kicking the can down the road again, that seems to be a win for good old Harry and this President. Harry can’t even put together a budget. Nevada why did you do this to us all? Please vote out this administration and all its puppy dog followers in 2012.
Posted by: Freedom | December 23, 2011, 1:40 pm 1:40 pm
LIZZIE
Merry Christmas. To you and all Republicans.
I think when all is said and done this President will go down as one of the best. He inherited a mess; he didn’t lie, from the beginning he said this recession was going to take a long time to fix. He’s done his best with a Congress that is dysfunctional.
Is he on the same level as FDR?, not yet but who knows. If he can get a Congress in 2012 he can work with I think 2016 will be a banner year.
Posted by: tmferretti | December 23, 2011, 1:44 pm 1:44 pm
Harry Reid — what a loser and one of the biggest reasons nothing gets done in Washington. Yeah, good ole Harry is going to lecture the freshman…they came to Washington to change it, not fall in line with the way you want things to continue to be run..
Posted by: RalphF | December 23, 2011, 1:57 pm 1:57 pm
TMFERRETTI | DECEMBER 23, 2011, 1:44 PM…”He inherited a mess; he didn’t lie, “…..He said he willing accepted these problems when he was campaigning in 2008. Lie? When one does not tell the truth, that is a lie. Both sides do it. We have budget deficits over 1 trillion dollars very year, a national debt over 15 trillion dollars. And an administration that makes extremely little effort to save a single dollar. They continue to spend as though the US had no debt.
Posted by: deanbob | December 23, 2011, 2:00 pm 2:00 pm
Reid was so dishonest, it was pathetic. Reid has blocked so many bills from the House, without even bringing them up for vote, we have lost count.
Reid is an Obama puppet, who takes his instructions directly from the WH, and NOT from the people. he is a fake and a fraud. To insinuate he compromises at all…….is a lie!
Posted by: Rick McDaniel | December 23, 2011, 2:00 pm 2:00 pm
Actually, things are so bad in Washington, the constant fighting, the lying, the debt which keeps going up and up and up, the lining of the representatives own pockets at tax payer expense…all of this is really endless and isn’t going to get fixed. It’s gone way beyond the point of being able to be fixed. The fighting will never end in Washington. Each party will never stop trying to make the other look bad, etc. I sadly have come to the conclusion that our Government must fail so we can truly start over. We have a Government today that our founding Fathers never envisioned. We have corruption at all levels. Representatives can’t represent us because they have to bow to those who have given them money. Campaign contributions and ear marks is the CANCER in Washington and it is slowly killing this country. I’m afraid Washington will have to implode before we can start over again, as our founding Fathers envisioned how our country should run.
Posted by: RalphF | December 23, 2011, 2:06 pm 2:06 pm
Reid is what is wrong with Washington. He is the one who needa to learn a lesson. What a joke.
Posted by: billy bob | December 23, 2011, 2:09 pm 2:09 pm
Stick it where the sun doesnt shine harry.
Posted by: billy bob | December 23, 2011, 2:11 pm 2:11 pm
DEANBOB AND RICK
Merry Christmas
We need to quit worrying about the deficit; it is meaningless and just cited for political purposes. We are in the middle of a recession and need to spend to get out of it. If anyone tells you there is another way, they are obviously from another planet and time.
Of course Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi are controlled by President Obama; he’s the leader of their party. I have no doubt they got together to engineer this embarrassment to Boehner. Clinton, Harry Mitchell, a Gephardt did to Newt all the time.
The major problem the republicans have is there is no leadership. McConnell can’t control the Senate republicans and Boehner is so afraid of the tea party he’s useless. I’ll bet in back rooms moderate republicans are asking him to step down as Speaker.
Posted by: tmferretti | December 23, 2011, 2:15 pm 2:15 pm
I doubt those new tea-party GOP congressmen had learned their lesson. From the posts of this discussion, neither their supporters. Expect more fights and decline of US in 2012.
The my way or noway attitude will the damage.
Posted by: todaypost | December 23, 2011, 2:25 pm 2:25 pm
@TMFERRATTI Sorry word has it your grand kids have learned the democrat way of life and have been seen bullying, looting and are living on entitlements.
Posted by: MIKE | December 23, 2011, 2:37 pm 2:37 pm
MIKE
Nope, they don’t want to do their homework and stay uneducated so they can become tea partiers or republicans, but we’ll change that.
Posted by: tmferretti | December 23, 2011, 2:51 pm 2:51 pm
TMFERRETTI | DECEMBER 23, 2011, 2:15 PM
Merry Christmas to you and your family.
Forget about the deficits? You do realize we borrow 40 cents of every dollar the govt spends? At some point, we are going to start paying higher interest rates – assuming there are people/countries are willing to LOAN is the money. Democrats complain about the Republican austerity measures now. Wait until we get Greece style austerity measures because there is no more money being loaned. If you read no other book, read “The Road to Serfdom”.
Posted by: deanbob | December 24, 2011, 10:26 am 10:26 am
ABC,
Doesn’t the payroll tax pay for Social Security? When does Social Security start drawing from the general fund? We’ve known Social Security will eventually fail, as established, does this move that time?
Posted by: Joe | December 24, 2011, 11:51 am 11:51 am
joe wrote:”Doesn’t the payroll tax pay for Social Security?”
.
Now come on Joe, you know better than to ask ABC to actually report facts about this issue. That confuses the narrative they have been working on so hard that DEMOCRATS are actually for the little people. If they were to actually report the facts, some people might actually figure out what is really going on and it might reflect badly on oBama and the DEMOCRATS.
Posted by: Michelle Shu Jas | December 24, 2011, 12:38 pm 12:38 pm