UPDATE II:
In a Capitol Hill news conference, Mr. Boehner announced the “deal.”
The New York Times reports:
Bowing under intense pressure from members of their own party to end the politically damaging impasse over a payroll tax holiday, House Republican leaders agreed Thursday to accept a temporary extension of the tax cut, beating a hasty retreat from a showdown that Republicans increasingly saw as a threat to their election opportunities next year.
Read more here
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UPDATE I:
It is now official. We will not use the word “crumple,” nor “cave in,” nor “give in,” nor “snap,” nor “retreat” nor any other synonym, but just say that House Republican leaders have agreed to do what is right for Americans and have accepted a two-month extension of a payroll tax holiday and unemployment benefits approved by the Senate last Saturday while the Senate would appoint members of a House-Senate conference committee to negotiate legislation to extend both benefits through 2012.
Good news for America and Americans — at least in my opinion, and Merry Christmas to all.
House Republicans on Thursday crumpled under the weight of White House and public pressure and have agreed to pass a two-month extension of the payroll-tax cut, Republican and Democratic sources told National Journal.
The House made the move after Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., agreed to appoint conferees to a committee to resolve differences between the Senate’s two-month, 2 percentage point, payroll-tax cut and the House’s one-year alternative.
The House will pass the two-month extension with a technical correction to the language designed to minimize difficulties businesses might experience implementing the short-term, two-month tax cut extension.
