By turning down a bill that was overwhelmingly supported by both parties in the Senate as well as the White House, the conservative House majority that has spent the year inciting combative legislative showdowns is now staring over the brink, standing fast against legislation with significant financial consequences for nearly every American household. ...NYT
Or, as the reports show, they blew their stacks and then headed out of town.
What Washington calls a "pivot" -- what the rest of us call psychotic -- the "tea party" Republicans, a group that first loved any lowering of taxes and then appeared to hate it, wound up rejecting a two-month deal saying what they want is a year's-worth of tax cuts. Anything to make trouble. Boehner then called the White House to ask for the Senate to be brought back to Washington for more wrangling. The president, fed up and apparently protective of the Christmas holiday, said no.
The tea party is in trouble. They are taking the blame from all sides. The Congressional Republicans spent the rest of the day sniping at each other.
The possibility of a resolution remains-- for two months, maybe. The resolution that would accomodate the tea party's need to act out, using a familiar time-wasting gesture.
Republicans could decide to accept the two-month extension as is or with additional sweeteners, like a promise that a conference committee would meet to seek a longer-term extension, but such a move would require unanimous consent from the Senate. They could add another social policy rider, as is their tendency, and the Senate could toss it off the bill later, through a procedure that has been employed in the past. Or they could do similar procedural moves with a bill to extend the benefits for a year, which has been the goal of Mr. Obama and Democrats all along. ...NYT
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The Republicans-turning-on-Republicans theme is echoed in the Washington Post's report.
McConnell has not been seen in public since Saturday’s vote, and a growing number of Senate Republicans have urged Boehner to cave, while rank-and-file House Republicans have called their Senate counterparts “lazy” for accepting the deal and demand that the extension be for an entire year. ...WaPo
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John Boehner is looking plaintive and silly. He's focused on the (absent) Senate and saying (according to NPR), "But we want to do this the right way!" even as the Senate leaves town.
A photo in the Washington Post makes Boehner look as though he's trying, bravely, to hold back tears.
The Hill reports on the blame game with hints that the Democrats are reaping the rewards for being regular old-fashioned representatives of the people -- just getting on with business and voting sensibly.
Democrats are convinced Republicans will get the blame if the payroll tax and unemployment benefits expire because of their rejection of the Senate bill, which the upper chamber approved in an 89-10 vote.
Their confidence has been bolstered by polls showing a jump in Obama’s approval ratings, and in critical comments from some Senate Republicans.
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) on Tuesday said the failure of the House to approve the bipartisan Senate bill to extend the payroll-tax cut is “harming the Republican Party.”
Speaking on CNN’s “Situation Room,” McCain said that while it’s inevitable that the tax cut will ultimately be extended, the infighting reflects poorly on Republicans and Congress as a whole.
“It is harming the Republican Party. It is harming the view, if it’s possible anymore, of the American people about Congress,” McCain said. “We’ve got to get this resolved and with the realization that the payroll-tax cut must remain in effect.” ...The Hill
