Congress Agrees on Payroll Tax; It's About Time (ContributorNetwork)

COMMENTARY | On Thursday, in what could best be described as a Christmas miracle, the unthinkable happened. CNN is reporting that House Republicans have agreed to a two-month extension of the payroll tax cut that has been the talk of Washington the past week.

I have said before that this whole argument over the payroll tax thing is a game of chicken between the GOP and President Barack Obama. Do not kid yourselves; it is true.

For the time being, it seems that even the Republican Party is willing to align themselves with an Obama-backed measure. According to the Washington Post, the GOP agreed to vote to pass the bill by Christmas. It's about time both political parties agreed on something. Perhaps it was the spirit of the holiday season that put the notion into their heads that they were squabbling over something rather ridiculous.

The payroll tax cut, for those that do not know, amounts to about $40 a week to a taxpayer making $50,000 a year. Forty bucks. This whole series of arguments and political grandstanding was over a person getting an extra forty a week in their paycheck. I wonder if members of the House and Senate ever actually had to be subjected to the living conditions of their constituents; would they have been so steadfast to get rid of the tax cut?

President Obama deserves a great deal of credit for getting this measure passed. In a speech Thursday broadcast on MSNBC, he talked about how some families would be unable to do something as basic as going out for pizza. It took something as basic as a pizza to drive home the point to Congress that it needed to get its act together or people would needlessly. That getting necessary legislation passed should not be a fight. It was an occasional tradition that even in time of war, two sides fighting against each other would lay down their arms in observance of a holiday. Even if it wasn't motivated by the spirit of the season, it was at least nice to see the GOP and Obama finally come to an agreement on something.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/gop/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ac/20111223/pl_ac/10738683_congress_agrees_on_payroll_tax_its_about_time

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