Murdock - Boehner's Payroll Migraine Could Become Malignancy
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Deroy Murdock-
Had Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, slammed himself over the head with a frying pan on the House floor, he would have done more for the Republican cause than what transpired Tuesday. The convoluted GOP response to the Senate’s payroll-tax-cut extension hands Democrats a truckload of skillets with which to smack Republicans until November 2012.
The good news is that two words can rescue Republicans from this fine mess.
Boehner fundamentally is correct: While a one-year tax cut provides limited relief, the Senate’s two-month tax cut is beyond silly. It merely schedules yet another tiresome House-Senate showdown. ZZZZZzzzz.
But Boehner’s ham-handed response is potentially catastrophic for GOP electoral prospects.
As I advised Monday on NationalReview.com Boehner should have deleted the Senate bill’s end date, “February 29,” 2012, and inserted “December 31.” Period. Otherwise, it should have remained intact.
This simple amendment would have forced President Barack Obama to credit Republicans for giving him what he wanted. “It would be inexcusable for Congress not to further extend this middle-class tax cut for the rest of the year” 2012, Obama said Dec. 17. If Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid and his colleagues then defied Obama and let a middle-class tax cut languish, that would be their hole to dig.
This two-word amendment would shield Republicans from the “do-nothing” label that Obama hopes will stick. If Senate Democrats did nothing, this would expose them as the obstructionists who have scuttled or ignored at least 15 GOP House initiatives to energize the economy and encourage job creation. Making the Senate bill a one-year measure also would preserve language to compel Obama to decide on the Keystone XL Pipeline within 60 days and, thus, choose between unionists (who favor the pipeline) or environmentalists (who hate it).
Rather than accomplish these objectives with a two-word amendment, however, Boehner has created a migraine that could become a malignancy.
Boehner led the GOP House into a scheme whereby they dispatched Republicans to a conference committee to negotiate a better deal with senators. One problem: Harry Reid refuses to name any Senate negotiators. Even if Reid cooperated, Senate Democrats would battle to resurrect a tax on millionaires, delete the Keystone provision and promote other liberal priorities.
Democrats and their media allies now will hammer Republicans for a “middle-class tax increase.” Some 160 million Americans will see their taxes rise by $1,000 on Jan. 1. Having squandered its budget-cutting qualifications during the fiscally un-toilet-trained Bush-Rove administration, the GOP now will watch its tax-cutting credentials get shredded.
