(Image source: C-SPAN )

 

BY CHRISTINA HARTMAN

 

Victory on Capitol Hill -- but this one’s short-lived.
Congress has finally approved a two-month extension of the much-debated payroll tax cut. Finally -- as in -- at pretty much the last minute. Bloomberg explains .

“Really it is crisis averted. We were approaching the January 1st deadline, when we were going to see the payroll tax shoot up from 4.2% to 6.2%. It was going to equate to $40 a paycheck for working Americans.”

Saving $40 bucks a paycheck sounds nice, but remember -- we’re talkin’ just two months. For The Washington Post , conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer calls it “the worst piece of legislation in years.”

“As a matter of practicality alone, it makes no sense. … What business operates two months at a time? … But making economic sense is not the point. The tax-holiday extension ... is the perfect campaign ploy: an election-year bribe that has the additional virtue of seizing the tax issue for the Democrats.”

A quick look at how it all shook out : Jobless benefits also got extended along with the Medicare reimbursement rate already in place. And -- House Republicans got something they wanted: making payroll reporting requirements a little easier for businesses.

If it IS a victory for the Dems -- it’s a short-lived one -- cuz two months is gonna come and go in no time. But The Hill says -- this is also a win for the GOP.

“Despite the heartburn the payroll fight caused Republican leaders, the bill in many ways represents a policy victory for Republicans, as it does not pay for the payroll tax extension through higher taxes... It also includes language that requires the Obama administration to make a decision on the Keystone oil sands pipeline extension within 60 days, something President Obama initially said he would veto.”


So what happens next? Well, that not-so-small task of figuring out how to get everyone on board with a full-year extension. That’s largely up to a conference committee. Politico reports ...

“The focus now turns to the conference committee. … For those negotiators, ‘there is nothing off the table, everything is on the table,’ [Senate Majority Leader Harry] Reid said — signaling that Democratic priorities such as the millionaire surtax could return.”

You might remember -- the millionaire surtax is part of the reason this took so long in the first place: Republicans were having none of it. So... new year, same old squabbles?