McConnell: Deal on Payroll Tax Cut Extension Will Be Done by February
After playing games at the end of the year with an extension of the payroll tax cut extension, it now appears that both Speaker of the House John Boehner and Senate Minority Leader are in agreement, and something's going to be passed by the end of next month.
CNN's Candy Crowley pushed Mitch McConnell on whether Republicans would be willing to raise taxes in order to pay for it and McConnell wouldn't rule it out, saying he didn't want to negotiate the deal with Crowley on CNN, but given that they're all beholden to St. Grover and his no tax pledge, I'll be very surprised to see them agree to increasing taxes later. I'll also be surprised if they don't demand another pound of flesh from the working class and the poor in order to offset the cost as well since that's been their pattern for the last several years. Can't raise taxes on the wealthy or corporations, but they'll gladly go after the elderly and the most vulnerable in society.
McConnell couldn't manage to make it through the interview without taking a shot at the Solyndra debacle, as though that one small project is the worst example anyone could find of wasteful government spending. And naturally Candy Crowley didn't bother to point out that it was McConnell and his ilk that helped destroy the economy and blow up the deficit in the first place with tax cuts, a prescription drug giveaway to the big pharma companies and two wars that they kept off the books, none of which were paid for and the fact that they didn't have one iota of concern for the size of the deficit until a Democrat got elected to the White House.
She also didn't ask him about the games they were playing late last year when they could have passed an extension of the payroll tax cuts, but decided not to that Ken wrote about here -- John Boehner Kills the Payroll Tax Extension Because It Was Too Popular and Would've Passed.
Another week of meet the Republicans for the Sunday shows and another week where they're allowed to lie and prevaricate at will with no push back from our corporate media.
Transcript below the fold.
CROWLEY: Let's start first with some congressional business. That payroll tax break needs to be extended by the end of February or people will see their payroll taxes come up. What do you think this final package is going to look like? And we should say that the sticking point has always been how you're going to pay for this thing.
MCCONNELL: Well, there's broad agreement on doing the payroll tax holiday through the end of the year. Republicans, Democrats agree on that. As you indicated the problem is the paying for it. The reason we ended up only doing the two-month extension earlier, Candy, was because our good friends on the Democratic side don't want to pay for anything. They'd love to do this...
CROWLEY: Well, they do. They just don't want to pay for it in the same way you do.
MCCONNELL: They don't want to cut spending. They just don't want to cut any spending.
CROWLEY: They would like to raise taxes on the wealthy.
MCCONNELL: That's what made it problematic. And -- but we'll get it done. We'll get it done by the end of February.
CROWLEY: What will it look like?
MCCONNELL: I don't know, it hasn't been negotiated.
CROWLEY: What is unacceptable to you in terms of paying for it?
MCCONNELL: Well, we don't believe that taking somebody's money and spending it on a bank like Solyndra is a good idea. We think the government, the administration wants to take somebody else's money, particularly people who've been successful and squander it on things like Solyndra. And we just don't think the government has this problem because it's taxes too little, we think it has the problem because it's spending way too much.
CROWLEY: Well, tax revenues have been down. A certain argument for a later time.
MCCONNELL: Yeah, but we know the economy...
CROWLEY: Right. So, but the question here is, if there is -- would you pay for it partially with any kind of tax increase? Would you agree to that?
MCCONNELL: We have this problem at the risk of being repetitious, because we spend way too much. We now have a debt the size of our economy. We look a lot like Greece. We're heading toward western Europe. If you want to see what happens, just look across the Atlantic. That's the direction we're headed in.
Under this administration, we've run the national debt up 43 percent in just three years.
CROWLEY: But you're not saying no, which is interesting to me. I mean, usually...
MCCONNELL: Well, I'm not going to...
CROWLEY: ...you all flatly rule out any kind of tax increase and you're not.
MCCONNELL: I'm not going to negotiate this agreement with you this morning. But I want the American people to understand that we now have a debt the size of our economy. And how significant that is.
And since it is leap year, my bet for the get done date would be on February 29th.
My guess is it will also build pipelines, bomb Iran, and ban abortions at some point in the process.
"Folks, this is not your father's Republican Party."
Joe Biden
And undermine social security.
If I were a psychopath, I would join the republican party, and get in on the gravy train taking the Teabircher morons to the cleaners.
Candy Crowley is a big fat disappointment. Same for CNN.
She did OK, but she did not take it to it's conclusion - didn't go far enough.
They could have been a news network, but instead they settled for 'access' to Washington elites.
"Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob"
-= Franklin Delano Roosevelt =-
The Pay Roll Tax Holiday is a HERITAGE FOUNDATION introduced a few years back by the Republicans!!!
The fact that the guys on Wall Street got Obama to pull it off the shelf and not even bother to "repackage" it before re-selling it to the "not so bright" public speaks volumes as to how stupid they think we really are.
Of course the Republicans are going to pass it; it was their plan!
Maybe, If Obama is to raise taxes on everyone to levels that will sustain SS, and sustain the nation at first world levels, he should probably get himself re-elected first. I don't think the median average American would appreciate a tax hike until perhaps after the election when they tax rates for the richest 1% plus, and they go back up to reasonable, sustainable levels first. We also have to get the economy going again, and working class, and middle class Americans that drive the economy, need money to drive that economy.
Candy actually did a decent job as far as she went
"Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob"
-= Franklin Delano Roosevelt =-
When is somebody going to out this sissy?
as the US Senator who provokes the fewest comments to a C&L Post.
Course when Blanche was featured Amatoi was usually trying to trying to raise money. And Mitch
does have the weight of Candy Crowley sharing the post to drag him down.
"Folks, this is not your father's Republican Party."
Joe Biden
"When is somebody going to out this sissy?"
Why don't you address the issues I have raised, and leave the personal attacks in your home where they belong!
Strange how the Moderator only comes around when those with up popular opinions cross the line?
Again; the pay roll tax holiday is a creation of the Heritage Foundation, pushed by the Republicans to defund
Social Security! MSNBC can cover up this fact.
Strange how the Moderator only comes around when those with up popular opinions cross the line?
Strange how the Moderator only comes around when those with un popular opinions cross the line?
I think the moderator comes along when commenters go OT. Name calling is not always OT, unless it is between commenters of coarse.
Mcconnell is beyond hope. It's as if the Manchurian Corp. got him. The best thing he can do is leave Washington, now.
"Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob"
-= Franklin Delano Roosevelt =-
Ape-Man's analysis is shared by many;
"Maybe, If Obama is to raise taxes on everyone to levels that will sustain SS, and sustain the nation at first world levels, he should probably get himself re-elected first. "
"We also have to get the economy going again, and working class, and middle class Americans that drive the economy, need money to drive that economy."
We have been down this road before when they came up with the bright idea of using our homes as ATM machine to "get the economy going". How did that work out? Wages were flat for 30 years; that was and is the problem! Cheap tricks and gimics are no replacement for a WPA and "good" living wage jobs!
1.)The problem I see with this is that Social Security is nor Broken; therefore it does not need to be fixed.
2.) Obama has been trying to put SS on the table to be cut from the very beginning; even be for his famous "Cat food Commission" (Alan Simpson) he proposed putting SS on the chopping block.
3.) the pay roll tax holiday is a Heritage Foundation idea dreamed up to defund SS!!!
4.) Obama has even admitted himself that many of the ideas he "pimps" are old "off the shelf" Republican ideas: "Why are the rejecting the same ideas they supported in years past?"
ObamaCare = RomneyCare
Pay Roll Tax Holiday = Heritage Foundation
NAS spying Bush = NSA spying Obama
The man (Obama) called Ronald Reagan his "hero"!
So far, Obama has received more money from Wall Street than any other candidate; his cabinet, looks like a Goldman Saccs boardroom. Wall Street is foaming at the mouth to get the Social Security trust fund "in play" in the market; all they required was a better "con-man" then Bush to pull it off.
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