Cantor, Hoyer both criticize Senate after House votes

Cantor was again defending the House vote to go to conference with the Senate on the payroll tax cut extension. That vote supports the House GOP view that the payroll tax holiday should be extended for a full year, not the two months as approved by the Senate.

{mosads}While Hoyer and other Democrats were clearly not happy with the House vote, Hoyer had some of his own criticism of the Senate, as he wondered aloud whether the Senate could possibly organize itself to negotiate with the House. Hoyer seemed to imply that Republicans should realize this problem with the Senate, and that asking for a conference puts at risk the tax and unemployment extension altogether.

“One of the things that I don’t think we differ on is a confidence or a lack of confidence that the Senate will do its job,” Hoyer said to Cantor.

“What I’m asking is, that we do not put at risk the 160 million people who are expecting their tax cut to continue, 48 million people, seniors who want access to their doctors, and the 2.3 million people who are going to go off unemployment contingent upon whether the Senate acts as the gentleman wants it to,” he added. “I will tell you, my experience has not been a great confidence that that will happen.”

Hoyer also used his time to ask if Republicans would consider the Senate-passed bill if no agreement could be found. But Cantor offered a sharp response, and said that if Democrats want to ensure the passage of the extensions, “the Democratic side of the aisle and the majority leader has the obligation to appoint conferees.”

That was a shot at House Democrats who said they would not appoint conferees to meet with the Senate. House Republicans have already appointed their conferees.

“No one thinks a 60-day extension is even workable, and I think most experts would say could cause unnecessary uncertainty, could cause additional cost to be incurred by businesses, and could hurt workers,” Cantor added, to cheers from Republicans. “So I would say to the gentleman, the House has acted, it is up to the Senate to act to stave off this tax hike.”