{"id":6525,"date":"2011-12-23T00:02:39","date_gmt":"2011-12-23T08:02:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=6525"},"modified":"2011-12-23T00:02:39","modified_gmt":"2011-12-23T08:02:39","slug":"the-grinch-is-a-republican-that-caved","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2011\/12\/23\/the-grinch-is-a-republican-that-caved\/","title":{"rendered":"The Grinch is a Republican that Caved"},"content":{"rendered":"

Republicans were so anxious to avoid extending the payroll tax cut for Main Street Americans, that they bent over backwards to block it.  They insisted on making the poor, not the rich, pay for it.  They loaded it down with poison pills.  And even when Senate Republicans finally did compromise, the House Republican leadership refuse to allow a vote on it, because it would have passed.  Boehner even turned off C-SPANs cameras, so America could not see Democratic objections.  However, the public outcry was so great that the Republicans caved in yesterday.  This is how it happened.<\/font><\/p>\n

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\"23Grinch\"President Barack Obama on Thursday chided House Republicans he said are holding up an extension of expiring payroll tax cuts, saying the debate is "about the American people."<\/p>\n

To make his point, Obama was flanked at the White House by people who said they would be stretched thin financially if Congress failed to extend the cuts before the end of the year. If no deal is reached, the White House says a person making $50,000 a year would see a loss of about $40 per paycheck.<\/p>\n

"Now there may be some folks in the House who refuse to vote for this compromise because they don’t think 40 bucks is a lot of money," Obama said. "But anyone who knows how to stretch a budget knows that at the end of the week or the end of the month, $40 can make all the difference in the world."<\/p>\n

In seeking to ratchet up pressure on Republicans for a deal, Obama reiterated his call for a two-month extension of the payroll tax cuts, a measure already agreed to by an overwhelming majority of Senators from both parties. He said the House GOP’s refusal to sign on to the bipartisan deal was exactly why the American people have grown so frustrated with Washington\u2026<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Inserted from <San Francisco Chronicle<\/a>><\/p>\n

As much as I\u2019d like to credit for the Grinch metaphor, I cannot.  It belongs to Rep. Jan Shakowsky<\/a> (D-IL).<\/font><\/p>\n

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Then Boehner caved<\/a>, and agreed to allow the vote.<\/font><\/p>\n

Two of my favorite commentators, Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow had excellent pieces on this.<\/font><\/p>\n

Keith covered it in two segments on Countdown<\/a>.<\/font><\/p>\n

In the first, he interviewed Andy Kroll.<\/font><\/p>\n