WSJ: GOP Botched Tax Debate

In a scathing editorial on Wednesday, The Wall Street Journal said House GOP leadership has “thoroughly botched” the payroll tax cut fight.

The editorial board also wrote that the GOP might have put President Obama in a “stronger reelection position” that opens the door to Democratic majorities in both the House and the Senate.

GOP Senate Leader Mitch McConnell [Ky.] famously said a year ago that his main task in the 112th Congress was to make sure that President Obama would not be reelected,” the editorial says. “Given how he and House Speaker John Boehner [R-Ohio] have handled the payroll tax debate, we wonder if they might end up reelecting the president before the 2012 campaign even begins in earnest.”

McConnell and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) negotiated a deal to extend the payroll tax cut through February to give the two sides more time to negotiate how it would be paid for. The measure passed the Senate by an overwhelming majority, and Boehner seemed to signal that it had the support of House Republicans.

GOP Senate Leader Mitch McConnell [Ky.] famously said a year ago that his main task in the 112th Congress was to make sure that President Obama would not be reelected,” the editorial says. “Given how he and House Speaker John Boehner [R-Ohio] have handled the payroll tax debate, we wonder if they might end up reelecting the president before the 2012 campaign even begins in earnest.”

McConnell and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) negotiated a deal to extend the payroll tax cut through February to give the two sides more time to negotiate how it would be paid for. The measure passed the Senate by an overwhelming majority, and Boehner seemed to signal that it had the support of House Republicans.

“The GOP leaders have somehow managed the remarkable feat of being blamed for opposing a one-year extension of a tax holiday that they are surely going to pass. This is no easy double play,” the editorial said. “Republicans have also achieved the small miracle of letting Mr. Obama position himself as an election-year tax cutter, although he's spent most of his presidency promoting tax increases and he would hit the economy with one of the largest tax increases ever in 2013. This should be impossible.”

More