JUST WHEN YOU thought the mess in Washington couldn’t get any messier comes the year-end snafu over the payroll tax , unemployment insurance and other supposedly must-do items. Explaining this fiasco to the proverbial Martian would be almost impossible. Both Democrats and Republicans say they want to see the reduction in the payroll tax extended for a full year. But they have been unable to reach agreement on how to pay for that cost or on extraneous issues being used as political leverage in the fight, such as speeding up approval of the Keystone XL pipeline. The Senate solution was not so much a solution as a whoppingly bipartisan agreement to fail to reach agreement, kicking the can down the road by a scant two months. No one should feel especially proud of that outcome. Read full article > >

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Editorial Board:
The best way to end the payroll tax standoff

House Republicans, on the eve of Tuesday’s vote denying tax relief to 160 million Americans, huddled in a conference room in the Capitol basement for more than two hours. Were they puzzling over how to explain to constituents why they were effectively ordering a tax increase on the middle class after fighting for much larger tax breaks for the wealthy? Were they justifying the killing of a bipartisan compromise that had the support of all but eight Senate Republicans and the tacit approval of House Speaker John Boehner? Read full article > >

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Braveheart Republicans? Or false-hearted?

The House on Tuesday rejected a bipartisan Senate compromise to extend a payroll tax cut for two months, along with unemployment benefits, plunging Washington into uncertainty just days before Christmas about the fate of the tax cut enjoyed by 160 million workers. On a vote of 229 to 193, the House set aside the Senate bill and requested a formal conference with the Senate, setting up a showdown with the Democratic-controlled Senate and President Obama, who has demanded that the House approve the short-term plan now to avoid a Jan. 1 tax hike. Read full article > >

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Obama blasts GOP after House Republicans defeat two-month payroll tax cut

Showing a new conciliatory tone, Senate leaders opened Congressional business Thursday by suggesting that a bipartisan compromise may come soon on a spending measure to keep the government running past Friday and a bill to extend a one-year cut in the payroll tax rate paid by 160 million workers. Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.), who has been holding up a $1 trillion spending measure that would fund much of the government through next September, said he believes both issues can be resolved “in the next few days.” Read full article > >

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Senate leaders say deal on spending, tax cut measures may come soon

WASHINGTON — The House voted Tuesday to end per-country caps on worker-based immigration visas, a move that should benefit skilled Indian and Chinese residents seeking to stay in the United States and the high-tech companies who hire them. The legislation, which passed 389-15, was a rare example of bipartisan accord on immigration, an issue that largely has been avoided during the current session of Congress because of the political sensitivities involved. Read full article > >

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House votes to end country limits for skilled workers seeking green cards

WASHINGTON — The House voted Tuesday to end per-country caps on worker-based immigration visas, a move that should benefit skilled Indian and Chinese residents seeking to stay in the United States and the high-tech companies who hire them. The legislation, which passed 389-15, was a rare example of bipartisan accord on immigration, an issue that largely has been avoided during the current session of Congress because of the political sensitivities involved. Read full article > >

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House votes to end country limits for skilled workers seeking green cards

Leaders of conservative groups on Tuesday had a message for Congress: The supercommittee’s failure wasn’t necessarily a failure. One day after the co-chairs of the bipartisan panel announced that they were unable to reach agreement on a deal to stem the country’s rising tide of red ink, the leaders of several conservative organizations cast the failure as a success because it did not result in a deal including tax increases. Read full article > >

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Conservative groups hail supercommittee failure, keep up pressure on taxes

Several lawmakers expressed support Wednesday for a controversial bill aimed at curbing online piracy as lobbying over the issue reached a fever pitch. In a House Judiciary Committee hearing on a bill proposed by committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Tex.), a bipartisan group of lawmakers said new laws are needed to help media outlets, software makers and retailers fight the illegal distribution of movies, songs and software. Read full article > >

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SOPA, controversial online piracy bill, gains support as lobbying intensifies

Ho ho ho! The big news coming out of the Senate Democrats’ weekly lunch? “We chose Secret Santas,” Sen. Ben Nelson told our colleague Paul Kane . For real! In an effort to inspire collegiality, six lawmakers — led by Al Franken (D-Minn.) and Mike Johanns (R-Neb.)— have organized the Senate’s first-ever mystery-gift exchange. They’re pushing for bipartisan swaps, though the numbers aren’t quite even: Of 58 senators signed up, 21 are Republican and 37 Democrat. Read full article > >

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Senators pick ‘Secret Santas’ for gift exchange

For two months now, 12 members of Congress have sat in a windowless room stocked with granola bars and high-quality coffee, trying to remember how Congress is supposed to work. So far, no luck. And time is running short. The job of the congressional “supercommittee” — charged with cutting $1.2 trillion from the country’s deficit — is to rekindle the possibility of the great big bipartisan deal, made by the big wheels in Congress. Read full article > >

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Can anyone here make a deal?

President Obama called the Democratic and Republican chairmen of Congress’s special deficit reduction supercommittee Friday and urged them to reach a deal, as the panel’s deadline for agreeing on a strategy to slash the nation’s debt rapidly approaches. In separate phone calls, Obama urged Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-Tex.) to find a way to steer the 12-member bipartisan panel to an agreement, the White House said. Read full article > >

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Obama urges supercommittee leaders to reach deal; warns against undoing consequences of failing to reach accord

On the eve of Veterans Day, the Senate approved new measures to help unemployed former service members, advancing a modest piece of President Obama’s $447 billion jobs package with rare bipartisan support. The bill, approved Thursday on a rare unanimous 95-to-0 vote, would extend tax credits to businesses that hire unemployed veterans. It would also provide new dollars for retraining older unemployed veterans for high-demand fields and includes programs designed to make it easier to get civilian certifications for military training. Read full article > >

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Senate passes veterans jobs bill

Gov. Rick Perry’s plan runs counter to recommendations from bipartisan debt reduction commissions.

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Many See Risk in Rick Perry’s Plan for Social Security

A group of 40 House Republicans for the first time encouraged Congress’s deficit reduction committee to explore new revenue as part of a broad deal that would make a major dent in the nation’s debt Wednesday, joining 60 Democrats in a rare bipartisan effort to urge the “supercommittee” to reach a big deal that could also include entitlement cuts. Read full article > >

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House Republicans make cross-party pitch to embolden debt ‘supercommittee’

With a Thanksgiving deadline fast approaching, a special debt-reduction committee is suddenly springing to life on Capitol Hill. Democrats made the first move in a closed-door meeting this week, pressing the bipartisan panel to pursue a far-reaching deal to slice $3 trillion from the federal budget over the next decade through an equal mix of spending cuts and new revenue. The proposal calls for significant cuts to health and retirement programs, as well as $1.3 trillion in new taxes. Read full article > >

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‘Supercommittee’ showing signs of life