112TH CONGRESS KICKING THE CAN DOWN THE ROAD: WORST.CONGRESS.EVER.

Washington, D.C.-- In a tumultuous year of last-minute, half-baked federal legislation, the Senate voted overwhelmingly today to extend a payroll tax cut for two months, with the chamber’s leaders and the White House proclaiming victory, even as they pushed the issue of how to extend the tax cut and unemployment benefits into the new year.

Who is paying for the two-month extension of the payroll tax cut working its way through Congress? Nope-- it's not the uber-rich. According to the Washington Post, the cost is being dropped in the laps of most people who buy homes or refinance beginning next year.

In an unusual vote, the Senate approved a $30 billion package to extend unemployment benefits, a payroll tax holiday for millions of American workers and to avoid cuts in payments to doctors who accept Medicare through February, when Congress will once again be locked in battle over whether and how to further extend those provisions. It seems that our elected officials are more concerned about going home for the holidays rather than doing the people's business.

The agreement-- should it get through the House-- mirrors a series of last minute deals devised by the 112th Congress that appear to solve nothing to an impending crisis, but simply kicks the can down the road. Most notably, the non-agreement last summer to raise the debt ceiling still looms large over this Congress. That created a 12-member Congressional committee whose job was to complete the deficit reduction goals that Congress failed to achieve on their own. That group achieved absolutely nothing, necessitating this legislation that Congress is wrangling with now. It's ridiculous. Pardon us if we seem to be underwhelmed by their so-called, "progress."

A failure to even extend a modest tax break for 160 million Americans for a single year — something both sides would love to accomplish with an impending election year coming up — is particularly remarkable in a Congress charged with avoiding far more significant items like job creation and easing unemployment. The second and last year of this session in 2012, coupled with a presidental and congressional elections, will no doubt be a nightmare for good government groups. As far as we are concerned, the 112th Congress has already proven that they are the WORST.CONGRESS.EVER.

The measure, which passed 89 to 10, would also speed the decision process for the construction of an oil pipeline from Canada to the Gulf Coast.

The temporary payroll-tax measure would include a House-passed provision requiring a White House decision on whether to allow the controversial Keystone XL pipeline within 60 days. Absent would be a provision delaying regulations on industrial boilers – the so-called Boiler MACT rule issued by the Environmental Protection Agency. President Obama last week said he would not accept the Keystone provision but Democrats said they will argue, as Republicans have, that it does not actually bind the White House, allowing it to put off the project if the president declares it not to be in the national interest.

Environmentalists carry a giant faux pipeline across from the North Lawn of the White House on Sunday Nov. 6, 2011. photo: Richard A. Bloom

While this pipeline provision is necessary to win over Republicans who opposed the tax break, the White House moved furiously to portray that concession, which President Obama threatened to veto just a week ago, as a boon for Democrats. What the freakin' pipeline has to do with a payroll tax holiday is any one's guess-- it's just political calisthenics from the mindless GOP hoping to paint the President into a corner.

However, the White House wants to spin the developments this way. “This is an important step towards enacting a key provision of the President’s American Jobs Act and a significant victory for the American people and the economy, said Dan Pfeiffer, White House communications director, late Friday. “Because as independent analysts have said, failing to extend this tax cut would have had a damaging effect on our recovery and job growth.” Whatever.

Some Democratic aides said this concession would have the effect of killing the pipeline project because the Obama administration has said it would not grant approval on a truncated timeline-- something the GOP was politically strategizing.

Republicans, who have spent much of the year being obstructionists say that tax breaks for Americans should not require offsets, also celebrated the deal as a "political win" and showed they really could care less about working Americans.

We believe they were referring to a report released by the Congressional Budget Office, which states the bill should reduce the deficit by about $3 billion.

With House members back in their districts and not expected back in the Capitol until sometime next week, it was not clear that the legislation will even pass muster in the Senate. And, many Republicans hate the idea of giving President Obama another few months — overlapping his state of the union address — to beat up on their party over the extension of the payroll tax cut, which many rank and file members dislike in principle. Another weapon for Obama is the fact that Republicans openly support the 1 percent, saying a surtax on the wealthiest Americans is a non-starter in negotiations that would provide a must needed revenue boost during a down economy.

While House Speaker John A. Boehner and other Republican leaders in the House were briefed on the Senate plan Friday, they could not commit the support of the Republican conference. “We have not signed off on anything at this point,” said Kevin Smith, a spokesman for Mr. Boehner, “and no decisions will be made until we talk to our members.” The 112th Congressional saga continues.