Obama, GOP skirmish on payroll-tax cut

Associated Press

WASHINGTON

President Barack Obama vowed to delay Congress’ year-end vacation as well as his own Thursday for “as long as it takes” to extend Social Security payroll-tax cuts and long-term jobless benefits, his second challenge in two days to conservative Republicans.

Obama stated his position as the House GOP leadership put the finishing touches on legislation that meets White House specifications in important areas but also contains at least one provision the president has pledged to veto.

A vote in the House is likely early next week, and party officials said the president’s threatened veto, which relates to a proposed oil pipeline from Canada to Texas, had made it easier to round up support from conservatives eager to be seen defying Obama.

“Frankly, the fact that the president doesn’t like it makes me like it even more,” said Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan, a leader of House conservatives, who added he had supported an earlier version, as well.

Separately, the two parties skirmished inconclusively in the Senate — each side blocking action on the other’s payroll-tax alternative — in a showdown that dramatized the partisan nature of the struggle nearly a full year in advance of the 2012 elections. Given the slow economic recovery and the political appeal of renewing tax cuts and unemployment benefits, it seems likely compromise legislation will reach the president’s desk in the next two weeks. And though there were signs of an emerging consensus on key points, the day’s events made it clear both sides had decided there still was time to bicker.