Obama Speaks On Passage Of Payroll Tax Cut Deal By Congress

Obama plans to deliver remarks Friday on the passage of the payroll tax cut deal by Congress.

The president had been urging House Republicans and Speaker John Boehner to pass the deal, and praised Congress for reaching an agreement over a temporary tax cut extension Thursday night.

The AP reports:

Back-to-back voice vote approvals of the two-month special measure by the Senate and House came in mere seconds with no debate, just days after House Republican leaders had insisted that full-blown negotiations on a full-year bill were the only way to prevent an immediate tax increase on Jan. 1.

...

The measure passed despite lingering grumbling from tea party Republicans. It buys time for talks early next year on how to finance the year-long extensions.

It will keep in place a 2 percentage point cut in the payroll tax - a salary boost of about $20 a week for an average worker making $50,000 a year - and prevent almost 2 million unemployed people from losing jobless benefits averaging $300 a week.