WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama will Thursday heap pressure on Republicans to extend a payroll tax holiday for 160 million Americans for two months, seeking to lock in an apparent political victory.
Obama will take on foes in the House of Representatives who have spent the year blocking his agenda, but now find themselves derided, even by their some fellow Republicans, for rejecting a Senate compromise on the tax break.
A White House official said Obama would highlight the pain caused to average Americans who stand to lose $40 a paycheck if the tax cut is allowed to lapse on January 1.
The president took to Twitter late Wednesday to deliver a rare, personal tweet on the issue which has whipped up a political controversy with huge implications for his future authority with Congress.
Seeking to further isolate Speaker John Boehner, the White House solicited 25,000 statements from Americans on Twitter and on its website in just over 24 hours testifying how much a $40 means to them.
House Republicans triggered a furor Tuesday by blocking a Senate compromise which would have extended the payroll tax rate of 4.2 percent for two months.
But Republicans, initially cool to the idea of a payroll tax holiday extension now want to guarantee the tax break lasts a year.
Obama had always pushed for a 12-month extension, but the Senate could not agree on how to pay for it, so settled for a stopgap solution.
"We are here, we are trying to go to work," said Republican House Speaker John Boehner Wednesday, repeating a call for the Senate to follow his lead in appointing negotiators to reach an agreement on a new joint approach.
Boehner met key lieutenants in his suite of offices in a US Capitol which was largely deserted apart from tour groups, underscoring the increasing isolation of the Republican caucus in the House.
Democratic Senate Majority leader Harry Reid has refused to recall his members, after passing a compromise hammered out with Republicans in his chamber which was reportedly initially backed by Boehner.
If an extension is not agreed by January 1, the payroll tax, which pays for the social security retirement system, will go back up to 6.2 percent.
Additionally, around two million people also stand to lose federally funded unemployment benefits.
Reid told Boehner in a letter on Wednesday that he would be glad to recall Senate negotiators to seek a compromise -- but only if the House reversed course and backed the bipartisan plan that passed the Senate 89-10.
"Because we have a responsibility to assure middle-class families that their taxes will not go up while we work out our differences, we must pass this immediate extension first," Reid wrote.
Democrats were milking the discomfort of Republicans for all it was worth, as Obama delayed joining his wife and daughters in his native Hawaii for his annual Christmas holiday vacation.
The president called Boehner and asked him to recall the House to pass the Senate plan, an option that could lead to an outright revolt among Tea Party conservative members of his caucus.
Steny Hoyer, a senior member of the House Democratic leadership accused Republicans of holding 160 million Americans "hostage."
The White House released examples of personal testimony of Americans who fear losing the $40 from their pay check.
"I can buy lunch from the cafeteria for almost a whole month for my twins," said one respondent, an L.A. Hamden of Connecticut.
"To some people $40 is nothing, but $40 is big money for us."
Republican Senator Bob Corker joined the growing number of his peers to criticize his fellow Republicans in the House over their handling of the issue, despite saying the House policy approach was better than the Senate's.
"Probably the best thing to happen now is just to get it over with -- one more public policy blunder -- and move on," Croker told CNBC.
"The House is right on this ... (but) they are losing the public opinion battle. It will get done in a pretty clumsy way."
The Wall Street Journal editorial page, normally solid in support of Republicans, questioned whether the whole affair might so damage Republicans that it "might end up re-electing the president before the 2012 campaign even begins in earnest."
"Republicans have also achieved the small miracle of letting Obama position himself as an election-year tax cutter," the paper said.
"The entire exercise is political, but Republicans have thoroughly botched the politics."
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