From USA TODAY:
More than 160 million U.S. workers will pay lower payroll taxes for at least two additional months as part of a deal reached Thursday between House Republicans and Senate leaders…
The short-term deal extends the current payroll tax rate at 4.2% from 6.2% and continues to provide unemployment benefits for the long-term unemployed. It also includes a Medicare “doc fix” that will prevent a drop in payments to doctors who treat seniors, and it extends and funds the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program that provides welfare benefits to 4.6 million Americans…
The deal also includes a provision supported by Republicans regarding construction of the Keystone XL oil pipeline from Canada to Texas that Republicans say will create 20,000 jobs in short order. The White House has said the project needs more time for environmental review, but President Obama will have 60 days to either issue a permit to allow it to be built, or to explain why it is not in the national interest in order to halt it…
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EDITOR: There was no agreement. Report on CNN was Speaker John Boehner got the adjourned members on a conference call, did not even ask if they agreed or not, but rather told them that they were unanimously approving the Senate Bill with a minor tweak largely to save face. Criticism had been pouring down on the recalcitrant hundred Tea Party members of the house who yesterday rejected the compromise from Democrats and Rupublicans alike and they were under criticism by their constituents back home. When asked at a news conference if any house member objected if he would convene the House between Christmas and New Years, Boehner said he certainly would.
