House Energy & Commerce Ranking Member Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) optimistically predicted that Democrats would win back the House next year, by introducing to subcommittee ranking members as the future chairman and chairwoman of those subcommittees.

"I'm pleased at this time to yield to the man who's going to be the chairman of the health subcommittee when the public gets a chance next year to vote out the Keystone Kops overreaching Republicans who are doing it again to the American people," Waxman said when introducing Rep. Frank Pallone (D-NJ).

Sen. Reid said Sen. McConnell did an about-face to deny the Senate a chance to defeat the bill tonight.

By a 234-193 vote, the House approved legislation that extends the payroll tax holiday and unemployment benefits.

The Senate meandered through a sleepy afternoon of debate over the rival balanced-budget amendment bills that will hit the floor for votes on Wednesday afternoon, with senators mostly repeating floor speeches already delivered earlier in the year. 

Republicans of every stripe, from Tea Party favorite Sen. Rand Paul (Ky.) to centrist Sen. Olympia Snowe (Maine), came to the floor in unison to express their support for Sen. Orrin Hatch's (R-Utah) version of the bill that would also place restrictions on raising taxes. All 47 Republicans are co-sponsors of that bill.

Just after passing the rule for the payroll tax holiday bill in a partisan vote, members of the House quickly approved two non-controversial bills:

H.R. 3246, naming a post office in Missouri. Passed 415-0.

S. 384, extending the authority of the U.S. Postal Service to raise funds for breast cancer research. Passed 417-1.

The House on Tuesday approved the rule for H.R. 3630, the Republican bill that would extend the payroll tax holiday and unemployment benefits but also includes provisions Democrats oppose that would require a faster decision on the Keystone pipeline, condition unemployment benefits in some cases and trim discretionary spending over the next decade.

Members approved the rule for the bill in a 236-180 vote that saw only three Democrats vote with Republicans.

“It’s hard to understand how you can say you’re for something,” Pelosi said, and “put up obstacles to its passage.”

The House payroll tax holiday extension bill on Tuesday afternoon survived its first Democratic challenge — a point of order that sought to derail the legislation.

Rep. Gwen Moore (D-Wis.) raised the point of order before debate on the rule for the bill even began, and was followed by other members of the Congressional Black Caucus who spoke against the bill. The point of order had no chance of success, and members agreed to set it aside in a 227-174 vote; only two Democrats voted with Republicans.

Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) on Tuesday accused Republicans of pushing legislation that would poison more than 8,000 people to death as a Christmas gift to Americans. 

"They have attached a poison pill — literally, colleagues — because it will kill 8,100 more people more than would have otherwise been killed from pollution,” said Boxer, referring to a provision Republicans have included in their payroll tax cut extension bill that would delay the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) industrial boiler regulations.