House GOP leaders announced Monday they were putting forward a "backup plan" that would extend the payroll tax cut for 10 months, while cleaving it from a similar extension of unemployment insurance benefits and what's known as the "doc fix," a measure needed to prevent dramatic cuts in Medicare reimbursements. The plan would not be offset by cuts elsewhere, the announcement said, meaning the cost of the tax cut would be added to the deficit.
The announcement, made quietly on a day Washington is digesting the president's budget proposal, is a stark reversal. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) took the floor shortly after the statement was emailed to reporters and spoke only of the budget.
"Because the president and Senate Democratic leaders have not allowed their conferees to support a responsible bipartisan agreement, today House Republicans will introduce a backup plan that would simply extend the payroll tax holiday for the remainder of the year while the conference negotiations continue regarding offsets, unemployment insurance, and the 'doc fix,'" said Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) and Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) in a statement.
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