House puts Keyston XL in bill with payroll tax break Obama wants

NY Times:

Pivoting to challenge President Obama and Senate Democrats, House Republicans said Thursday that they would forge ahead with a payroll tax holiday bill that includes an oil pipeline opposed by the president and that looks to changes in social programs to pay for the tax cut and added unemployment benefits.

In a sharp answer to several failed bills produced by Senate Democrats that would cut an employee’s share of the payroll tax and impose a new surcharge on income over $1 million, the House Republican bill would pay for the extension through a mix of changes to entitlement programs and a pay freeze for federal workers.

The House is expected to vote next week on the Republican bill, which includes a provision to speed construction of the Keystone XL pipeline from Alberta, Canada, to the Gulf Coast — a project the White House has sought to delay.

It would also include a measure passed this year in the House that would roll back Environmental Protection Agency rules limiting toxic air pollutants from commercial and industrial boilers, and ban the agency from proposing a new standard in the near future. While both ideas enjoy some support from Democrats, they would have a hard time gaining broad support in the Senate.

Republicans see the added elements as a way of both attracting party support for a tax break that many Republicans oppose, and forcing Democrats to accept provisions they do not like.

But Mr. Obama has threatened to veto any payroll tax measure that would ease approval of the pipeline, and he reiterated that position in an impromptu news conference on Thursday morning.

“Rather than trying to figure out what can they extract politically from me in order to get this thing done, what they need to do is be focused on what’s good for the economy, what’s good for jobs and what’s good for the American people,” said Mr. Obama, who added that he would not leave for a planned vacation in Hawaii until the legislative fight was resolved.

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This is another example of Obama's turn to demagoguery  in response to legislation Republican believe is in the best interest of the country.  If he were being honest about the issue he would recognize that and just say he disagreed rather than trying to challenge their motives.  I think the Keystone XL is more important to the long term and short term growth of the economy and a continued tax break that has not been successful in stimulating the economy.  I suspect that the President's motives in pushing it are for his own political benefit and not any economic benefit.  In the meantime he is undercutting the Social Security trust fund and putting the lie to the Democrat contention that it actually exist.

Opposition to the Keystone project is by the anti energy left which is part of the President's base, but it is not supported by a majority of Americans who approve of the project by about 60 percent.  Ultimately, Obama's oppostion is going to be a political loser for him in 2012.