GOP leaders blame Dems on payroll tax

House Republican leaders tried to put the blame on Senate Democrats for a lack of progress in talks to extend the payroll tax cut. 

Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.), in an evening statement, said that the conference committee charged with crafting a year-long agreement should take a deep look at offsets that already cleared the House.

“If Senate Democratic leaders will not allow their conferees to support the bipartisan spending cuts passed by the House, they have a responsibility to tell the American people what spending cuts they are willing to support,” Boehner and Cantor said in a statement.

“If they aren’t willing to do either, then the American people will be right to question Senate Democratic leaders’ seriousness about actually getting a full-year payroll tax cut enacted,” the two leaders added.

The conference committee — which is also looking to come to an agreement on federal unemployment insurance and Medicare payments for doctors — is expected to concentrate on ways to pay for their proposals when they meet on Tuesday, according to an aide knowledgeable of the committee’s discussions.

Conferees could hold three public meetings this week, after the two get-togethers last week became bogged down over differences in pay-fors and policy preferences. 

With the committee having trouble, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said last week that Senate Democrats were crafting their own back-up plan in case the committee can’t reach an agreement — an idea that was quickly rebuked by GOP lawmakers.

On the offset front, Democrats are still pushing for a surtax on millionaires to pay for an extension of the two-percentage-point reduction in the payroll tax cut. Republicans have called for a variety of separate pay-fors, including an extension of the pay freeze for federal workers.

Republicans and Democrats have also disagreed on other provisions that could be added to a payroll tax deal, including the Keystone XL oil sands pipeline and expired tax incentives.

The conference committee has until the end of the month to extend the payroll tax cut. But lawmakers are scheduled to be out of Washington the week after next, adding an extra complication to negotiations.

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