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| Economy |
| Congress Stalls Again - for Two Months |
| 2011-12-18 |
| On Saturday, the Senate agreed to a two-month extension in a payroll tax cut and unemployment benefits that will expire Jan. 1, top priorities for President Obama and congressional Democrats. For a Congress whose end-of-year squabble was already deeply unpopular, December's battle is likely to become February's war. But extending the items for only a brief time came at a heavy price for Democrats -- a requirement that Obama quickly decide whether to issue a construction permit for the controversial 1,700-mile Keystone XL pipeline. That means Congress could be back to the same arguments in February -- whether to let taxes rise and unemployment benefits lapse -- just as Obama prepares to issue a ruling on the pipeline, which union leaders back but environmentalists oppose. Ho, ho, HO! Caught between a rock and the deep blue sea! The One will try to swim with the rock. If the House approves the deal, the White House has indicated that Obama will probably deny the pipeline permit, on guidance from the State Department that the 60-day window in the bill to make a decision is not long enough to complete necessary reviews of the routing through an environmentally sensitive area of Nebraska. I thought the State Department decided already? And the environmental reviews were complete, except as far as the tree-huggers were concerned. |
| Posted by:Bobby |