Boehner hopes to avoid GOP Senate fate on payroll taxes

House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said Friday he hopes to avoid the kind of mass intra-party resistance that Senate GOP leaders saw on Thursday when they brought their proposal to extend the payroll tax cut up for a vote.

Boehner and other House leaders are presenting plans for paying for the payroll tax extension and an extension of unemployment insurance benefits Friday morning, less than a day after a majority of Senate Republicans voted against their leadership’s own payroll tax plan.

The Speaker declined to give details of the House GOP plan at a news conference before the closed-door meeting. Asked if he expected to see similar resistance from House Republicans as the Senate GOP showed, Boehner replied: “I would hope not.”

In the Senate vote, 26 Republicans voted against the GOP plan, while 20 voted for it. A rival Democratic plan, which would pay for the payroll tax cut extension with higher taxes on the wealthy, fell short of the 60-vote threshold, 51-49.

Senate GOP leaders proposed to pay for prolonging the payroll holiday by extending a federal pay freeze, cutting the government workforce and trimming certain federal benefits for the wealthy.

Already, a number of House Republicans have voiced skepticism on extending the payroll tax cut, a key elements of President Obama’s jobs plan.

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