–House Speaker Boehner: Time To ‘Finish This Bill’ On Payroll Cut
–Rep. Boehner: One Year Extension ‘Better For Jobs’
–House Majority Leader Cantor: ‘Not A Big Difference’ On Payroll Bill
–Rep. Cantor: Could Negotiate A Deal With Obama In About An Hour
–House Minority Whip Hoyer: ‘Very Substantial Differences’ On Payroll

By John Shaw

WASHINGTON (MNI) – House Speaker John Boehner and House Majority
Leader Eric Cantor, joined by the eight lawmakers they have named to
negotiate a final payroll tax cut extension package, said Thursday that
they could negotiate a final payroll tax cut extension package with
President Obama and congressional Democrats very quickly and easily.

At a briefing, Boehner urged Senate leaders and the White House to
“sit down and have a serious negotiation” over the payroll tax cut
extension.

Boehner said the House GOP’s call for a one year extension would be
“better for jobs” than the Senate’s compromise two month plan.

“Let’s finish this bill,” Boehner said.

“We need somebody to work with,” the Speaker said, adding “let’s
sit down and resolve the differences.”

Boehner gave no hint that the House GOP is rethinking its strategy
to reject the Senate’s compromise bill.

“Some time it’s hard to do the right thing,” Boehner said.

Cantor, in his remarks, said there is “not a big difference”
between the two parties on the issue.

Cantor said the differences are largely in the area of finding
offsets to pay for the package and said this could be resolved in about
an hour of serious talks.

After Boehner and Cantor made their remarks, House Minority Whip
Steny Hoyer and Rep. Chris Van Hollen urged the House Republican
leadership to pass the compromise plan that was approved by the Senate
Saturday.

At a briefing, Hoyer accused the House GOP of “walking away from
America’s working people” and should pass the Senate’s “bipartisan
compromise.”

Hoyer said there are “very substantial differences” between the two
parties on the matter. “Our differences aren’t that small,” Hoyer said.

“The keys to this problem are in their hands,” Van Hollen said,
referring to House Republicans.

The House voted Tuesday to reject the Senate’s compromise bill that
would have given a two month extension to last year’s payroll tax cut,
renew unemployment insurance benefits and prevent a sharp cut in doctor
payments under Medicare.

The House also voted Tuesday to reaffirm its support of the
Republican package that would extend for one year the current 4.2%
payroll tax rate for employees and renew unemployment insurance benefits
for workers who have been unemployed for more than six months. The plan
would extend for two years the so-called “doc fix” to prevent Medicare
payments to doctors from being cut by more than 27%.

The House GOP plan would also remove barriers to construction of
the Keystone XL project and delay a new pollution standard for
industrial boilers.

The House GOP package would cost about $195 billion, with about
$120 billion of the cost coming from the payroll tax cut extension. The
package is paid for by a host of spending savings including minor
adjustments to the Social Security and Medicare programs and fees
imposed on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. It would also freeze the salaries
of civilian federal workers through 2013.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has said the Senate has already
passed a bipartisan compromise plan and he will not enter into yet
another round of talks with the GOP.

The Senate approved Saturday on an 89 to 10 vote a payroll tax cut
package that Reid and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell negotiated.

Senate leaders were unable to reach a broad agreement that would
have funded the package for a full year, so they agreed to extend
various programs for two months.

The scaled-back package would cost about $40 billion and would be
paid for by higher fees that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac charge to
mortgage home lenders.

There have been reports that McConnell is urging Reid to name
Senate Democratic members to the House-Senate conference committee to
negotiate the one year bill and in exchange for this, the House would
vote on the Senate’s compromise bill.

** Market News International Washington Bureau: (202) 371-2121 **

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