McConnell: Dems' latest payroll proposal no compromise

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) struck back at his Democratic counterpart, Nevada Sen. Harry Reid, on Tuesday over his repeated insistence that Democrats' latest iteration of the payroll tax cut extension is a "compromise."

"He rather misleading referred to it as a compromise on the payroll tax," said McConnell, delivering his first speech of the week on Tuesday. "I call it misleading because we had to find out about it from reporters."

"This was not another compromise, this was another bill designed to fail," said McConnell.

The bill McConnell was referring to was presented by Democrats on Monday and would extend the payroll tax holiday by hiking taxes on the rich. The tax hike, however, is about $85 billion smaller than the one included in a similar bill presented by Democrats last week, which was soundly defeated. That reduction in the surtax on the rich has led Democrats, including Reid, to refer to this week's bill as a compromise.  

McConnell pointed out that once again the Senate will spend the week deliberating legislation that has almost no chance of clearing the Congress. 

“The majority leader has yet to introduce legislation that can actually pass the Senate or the House,” said McConnell. “[S]o this is what Washington has been reduced to: a president and a Senate that would rather spend their time doing cheap political theater than giving people the certainty they want.”

Reid on Monday, however, warned that "Republicans in Congress dismiss our plan at their own peril."