KRAUTHAMMER: “The GOPs Payroll Tax Debacle” (Washington Post, US)

The big Congressional news this week, and the high point of Obama’s recent head-butting with Congress, was the extension of the Payroll Tax Cut for the holiday season for middle class families.  Charles Krauthammer delivers a characteristically skeptical account of the debate, and how the entire discourse was a trap that the GOP walked right into.  The article leaves the reader wondering whether this was a fight worth losing for the Republicans.

Arguing that the payroll tax cut extension was pointless and would hold very little consequence for long-term economic stability, Krauthammer then highlights how the Democrats more or less used the debate as a way to put Republicans in a bind: Either support the cut and give Obama a nice legislative victory in an election season, or fight the bill and risk the animosity of millions of working Americans.  For the House, the option chosen was to oppose the bill in every form, and such as position therefore earned them great mistrust with the American people.  So for Krauthammer, the legislation was more of a ploy than an actual policy to help joblessness.