Boehner urges Obama to spur Dems on payroll tax extension

House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) on Thursday called on President Obama to engage in stalled negotiations to extend the payroll tax cut and spur Senate Democrats to strike an agreement.

The Speaker and other Republican leaders have blamed Democratic leaders for holding up progress in a House-Senate conference committee on extending the tax break, which expires at month’s end, for the rest of 2012.

The parties are divided on how to pay for the tax cut, along with extending unemployment insurance benefits and a fix to the Medicare reimbursement rate for doctors.

“The president and Senate Democrat leaders will not allow their conferees to support a reasonable bipartisan agreement on spending cuts,” Boehner told reporters. “Worse, they’ve refused to allow any alternatives at all except for job-killing small business tax hikes that they know can't pass the Senate, much less pass the House.”

The Speaker also referred to reports that Democratic leaders were preventing the party’s chief negotiator, Sen. Max Baucus (Mont.), from making a deal. Democrats believe they have the political advantage on the issue, and Republicans are worried they will try to stall until the deadline in the hopes Democrats will buckle at the last minute.

“If the president wants to get this done, he needs to let Chairman Baucus and the Democratic conferees do their work,” Boehner said. “Right now the only ones blocking an agreement are Senate Democrats and the president. It’s time for them to act.”

With Congress on recess after next week, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has said the negotiators must reach a deal by early next week. Boehner refused to put a specific deadline on the committee but said, “They need to get moving.”

“I’m not going to create some artificial deadline for me or you,” he said. “I’ve been there, done that, not doing it again. The sooner, the better.”

Earlier Thursday, Republicans on the conference committee dismissed a new offer from Senate Democrats on reforming the unemployment insurance program, a GOP priority.

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