It’s not often that you’ll see me lauding House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) as the voice of reason but here it is: the man is one of just a handful in Congress making some sense with respect to these payroll tax cuts. Speaker Boehner is pushing for a full year extension on the cuts, saying:
I believe that two months is just kicking the can down the road. I’m tired of it. … It’s time to just stop, do our work, resolve our differences and just extend it for one year.
Amen.
Of course, he’s a little late to the ball since on yesterday, he appeared to support the two month extension. But at least he finally got there.
As I’ve said before, I am not a fan of the cuts. But we have them. So we either commit or we walk away. But this half a loaf solution – the two month extension – that is being bandied about is ridiculous.
Interestingly, this isn’t a Democrat versus Republican issue on its face: the Democrats, including President Obama, initially supported a full year payroll tax cut extension. But it became political as both sides insisting on holding the deal hostage by tacking on other “stuff” such as Keystone Pipeline XL approval and the so-called “millionaire tax”.
So now, we wait and hope that reason prevails. Congress?
