House speaker calls for Congress to continue work on payroll-tax package

By Major Garrett
December 19, 2011
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House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said on Monday the House will defeat the Senate's two-month extension of the payroll tax and will seek a conference committee to resolve differences between the Senate bill and the House's one-year extension of the payroll tax cut.

"It's time to stop the nonsense," Boehner told a news conference. "Why do we have to go to the lowest common denominator?"

Boehner said Senate Democrats must come back to Washington and admit that their bill is dead and cannot be resurrected. Boehner also noted that President Obama "has said repeatedly" that Congress should not leave Washington until the payroll tax cut is extended, and Democrats "echoed exactly the same thing."

Boehner said Senate Democrats should "put their vacations on hold."

"It's time for us to do our work," he said.

Senior House GOP aides said the strategy they are now pursuing is to stay in Washington all this week until Senate Democrats relent and return to negotiate a compromise bill.

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