Boehner: GOP willing to work with Obama on payroll tax

By Bernie Becker - 11/22/11 05:22 PM ET

House Speaker John Boehner stressed Tuesday that House Republicans were willing to consider an extension of the current payroll tax cut.

The Ohio Republican’s statement, which came the same day President Obama lobbied for the payroll tax cut in a New Hampshire speech, also called on the Senate to approve what he called more than 20 House-passed bills that could help create jobs.

“With one single statement, the president of the United States could dislodge these bipartisan jobs bills and ensure they are brought to a vote,” Boehner said. “I hope the president will put country before party and call on the Senate to bring these bipartisan jobs bills to a vote immediately after Thanksgiving.”

For his part, the president used his speech in New Hampshire to press Congress to promptly clear payroll tax relief for 2012, a key plank in Obama’s broader $447 billion jobs package, once it returned from the holiday.

Obama and the White House have long said that continuing the payroll tax cut — which was enacted for 2011 in last December’s tax-cut compromise — is among the best ways to give a jolt to a still-sputtering economy.

“It is inconceivable to me and to him that a Republican Congress would want to raise taxes on 160 million hardworking Americans next year, all in the name of protecting tax breaks for the very wealthiest Americans,” Jay Carney, the White House press secretary, told reporters on Tuesday.

The president’s jobs act would reduce the payroll tax to 3.1 percent in 2012, after last year's tax deal lowered the rate from 6.2 percent to 4.2.

Analysts have said that the 2011 payroll tax cut will save the average family close to $1,000, and the White House has said the enhanced 2012 version would lead to average savings of $1,500.

Still, it remains to be seen whether lawmakers will battle over offsetting the tax cut. The 2011 payroll tax relief cost roughly $112 billion.

Republicans have also called for more permanent tax changes, while Democrats have expressed concern about the revenue stream for Social Security, which is funded by the payroll tax.

The more than 20 jobs bills referred to by Boehner include a measure aimed at regulations dealing with net neutrality, the cement sector and the Environmental Protection Agency.