Cantor calls on Obama to step in on payroll tax negotiations

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) on Wednesday called for President Obama to get involved in helping Congress reach an agreement on a yearlong payroll tax cut extension.

"We're here, the president's down the street at the White House, he's seemingly unwilling to come and join us to say, 'Let's get this thing done,' " Cantor said on MSNBC. "I've heard him say the only thing that's doable is a 60-day extension. How is that? The only reason he'd say that is because [Senate Majority Leader] Harry Reid's [D-Nev.] not willing to come back to town."

The Senate adjourned over the weekend after the overwhelming passage of a two-month payroll tax cut extension. House Republicans rejected the two-month extension as not long enough and House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) has called on Obama to call the Senate back to Washington for further negotiations. 

"Why isn't he calling us in, why doesn't he join us here to try to make this happen?" Cantor said of Obama. "The differences aren't very great."

Reid's office has said he will not call the Senate back to Washington because there is "absolutely no reason" the House should not pass the compromise that passed the Senate with bipartisan support.

"Where people are frustrated is because they don't see Congress getting anything done," Cantor said. "We have members here in Washington ready to go back to work. ... We've got time before the end of the year — let's do our work like the American people are willing to do."

The payroll tax cut is set to expire at the end of the year.

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