It was over in a less than two minutes. They could all have been home days ago with their families drinking eggnog, and some were by the time the House of Representatives got together this morning to agree by unanimous consent to a two-month holiday extension of the payroll tax cut, extended unemployment compensation and other matters. Instead, dead-enders kept up a fight that put words like "fiasco" into the headlines. The Senate had agreed earlier this morning to a slightly modified bill.
As David Waldman predicted this morning, there was gnashing of teeth by the diehards about the deal. But when the time came to object, nobody did.
Here's Rep. Allen West on Facebook:
I cannot support this, but it seems the politics of demagoguery have won over policy and principle with the concession to enact tax policy on two-month basis.
This is a sad day for America and further evidences our continuing decline. Men and women of principle are become a dying breed in this Republic...
Here's West putting his objections into practice on the floor of the House ...
{{{crickets}}}
Come January, they'll be back working hard to get congressional approval ratings into single digits.
[Update]: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid announced his choices to serve on the Senate-House conference committee that in January will seek to work out differences between the two houses on the full-year extension of the payroll cut, unemployment benefits, the "doc-fix" on physician reimbursements, and other matters. Reid picked Max Baucus of Montana, Bob Casey of Pennsylvania, Jack Reed of Rhode Island and Ben Cardin of Maryland.