House passes payroll-tax holiday extension on unanimous consent

House Republicans managed to end their week-long facepalm moment not with a bang, or even a whimper.  Speaker John Boehner passed the Senate 60-day payroll-tax holiday extension by unanimous consent after a face-saving deal was reached yesterday:

The House on Friday morning approved a bill extending the payroll tax holiday and unemployment insurance for two months, and also prevents a planned cut to reimbursements for Medicare physicians.

Rep. Jo Ann Emerson (R-Mo.) asked for unanimous consent, which was declared approved by House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio). The bill is H.R. 3765.

After having to front a public-relations disaster courtesy of a rebellion in his ranks, Boehner re-asserted control rather forcefully in the end.  Any member of the GOP caucus could have forced a roll-call vote on the Senate bill, but in the end none did.  Perhaps the realization that they had handed Barack Obama a golden opportunity to paint Republicans as opposing middle-class tax cuts, no matter what the reality of the convoluted opposition to the bipartisan Senate compromise might be, kept them silent on the floor this morning.

Or perhaps they finally recognized that Senate Republicans had actually negotiated a pretty good deal in the end, and left room for even more gains in the next 60 days:

Optics aside, the bill in many ways represents a policy victory for Republicans, as it does not pay for the payroll tax extension through higher taxes, as Democrats had first proposed. It also includes language that requires the Obama administration to make a decision on the Keystone oil sands pipeline extension within 60 days, something President Obama initially said he would veto.

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