The US House of Representatives passed a compromise bill Friday extending a payroll tax cut and jobless benefits through 2012, measures aimed at boosting the US economy. The bill passed by a vote of 293 to 132 and nine abstentions, with broad support from Democrats and Republicans, after a bipartisan deal was reached to end a long and bitter fight over a key proposal by President Barack Obama.
The Senate was expected to take up the bill later in the day, in what both sides claimed as evidence the deeply divided Congress could work out their differences on a measure benefiting ordinary Americans. The cost of the package has been estimated at $150 billion.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi lamented it did not include a tax hike for Americans earning over $1 million a year, but said it was a "victory for the middle class." "I urge my colleagues to be ever vigilant about every opportunity we can take to support the middle class. Today is a good day in that regard," she said. Dave Camps, the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee and chief Republican negotiator of the compromise, also defended it as a "significant victory for those of us concerned about the national debt and the culture of deficit spending that has gripped Washington for far too long."
"All government spending in this agreement is fully paid for, and not with one dime of higher taxes," he said, urging Republicans to vote in favour. The plan is expected to extend a cut in the Social Security tax rate - from 6.2 to 4.2 percent - for another 10 months, and extend unemployment benefits through the end of the year.
It will mean a salaried worker making $50,000 a year will be getting about $1,000 more in take-home pay over the course of the year. The measure also puts off cuts in payments to doctors by Medicare, the national health insurance program for the elderly, until after the November elections.
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