Congress easily passed a sweeping package
that would extend the payroll tax holiday for 160 million Americans
until the end of the year, sending President Barack Obama a middle class
tax cut that had become one of his top domestic priorities.
The
vote in the lower chamber was 293-132. On party lines, 91 Republicans
and 41 Democrats opposed the package. The Senate quickly cleared the
bill on an 60-36 vote less than an hour after the House voted.
Aside from allowing workers to keep a little more of
their paychecks, the bipartisan deal also extends jobless benefits and
pushes off a scheduled 27 percent pay cut to doctors who provide Medicare. The agreement, led by the two top tax writers in Congress,
came on the cusp of a weeklong congressional recess but well before
those programs expired at the end of this month – marking a rarity for a
legislative body that constantly ran up against the brink of deadlines.
