Following the happenings in Washington, DC is like watching the movie “Groundhog Day,” except there’s nothing funny about DC. Expect to hear more bitterly partisan speeches from President Obama as Congress fights yesterday’s battles again, including extending the payroll tax holiday and how to pay for it.
The year’s first significant order of business, a symbolic vote Wednesday on a Republican resolution disapproving of President Obama raising the debt limit this year by $1.2 trillion, is the latest example of partisan gamesmanship, said House Minority Whip Steny H. Hoyer. …
If the resolution passes the Republican-controlled House, it would face almost no chance of survival in the Democrat-run Senate. And if somehow it cleared both chambers, it would face a certain veto by Mr. Obama.
Republicans say the vote is necessary because Democratic spending has pushed the federal debt to a dangerously high level. …
With the Senate not returning to work until Monday, members of a bipartisan, bicameral conference committee set up to hammer out an extension of the payroll-tax holiday, which expires after Feb. 29, still hasn’t met in person.
The debate isn’t expected to go much smoother than it did at the end of 2011, when House Republican leaders caved to Senate demands and approved the upper chamber’s two-month tax-cut bill that benefits 160 million American wage earners. (Read More)
How much of this could have been avoided if the Democrats in the Senate had bothered to pass a budget any time in the past 1000 days?
Tags: 2012, congress, debt ceiling, payroll tax
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