Congressional stalemate sets up Christmastime government shutdown

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House Speaker John A. Boehner called Wednesday for Democrats to release a year-end spending bill from their blockade. Democrats said they won’t allow the bill to go through until lawmakers also pass an extension of this year’s payroll-tax cut. (Associated Press)

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• Politics
• Business_Finance
• Barack Obama
• Harry Reid
• Senate

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Congress flirted Wednesday with yet another partial government shutdown — the third this year — as Democrats said they won’t allow a year-end funding bill to go through until lawmakers also pass an extension of this year’s payroll tax cut.

Late in the day, Democrats were reportedly preparing a new payroll tax-cut offer after forgoing their demand that any tax cuts be accompanied with tax increases on the wealthiest Americans. That had been their chief negotiation position since September, when President Obama insisted that tax increases be part of his jobs-stimulus package.

The new offer could be the breakthrough needed to end a stalemate, which now threatens continued funding for most of the government, payments to doctors to treat Medicare patients, more unemployment benefits for the long-term jobless, and the tax cut, which Mr. Obama said is worth an average of nearly $1,000 to 160 million taxpayers.

For most of the past two weeks, the two sides have been divided over how to pay for the tax cuts and over the Republican insistence that the bill also force the White House to make a decision on the Keystone XL pipeline, which would carry oil from Canada to the U.S.

Democrats have blocked action on the spending bill until the Republicans caved, but that appeared unlikely late Wednesday.

“The House has done its work. It’s time for the Senate to do theirs,” said House Speaker John A. Boehner, Ohio Republican, who called on Democrats to release the spending bill from the blockade. “We’ve got an agreement in a bipartisan way on the appropriations process to fund the government. There’s no reason for it to be held hostage to try to give leverage to one side or the other.”

Current government funding expires Friday. Those writing the replacement bill said it is ready to go, though Democratic leaders disputed that. Still, they acknowledged that it could be wrapped up speedily if all sides cooperated.

“I think we could complete it very quickly if people sat down and focused on what we need to do to get out of here,” said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Nevada Democrat.

The stalemate and potential shutdown are a fitting cap to a year that has seen this scenario play out repeatedly. First, the two sides clashed over 2011 spending, averting a shutdown at the last moment when the Republicans dropped provisions that would have tied Mr. Obama’s hands on the environment and health care, and Democrats accepted tens of billions of dollars in spending cuts.

The two sides fought through the summer over raising the government’s debt ceiling. That was solved when they agreed to discretionary spending cuts over the next decade and then created a supercommittee to propose more cuts — with automatic cuts going into effect if the committee failed.

The committee did fail, but the discretionary spending numbers have held. They became the basis of the year-end spending bill that now hangs in limbo.

Mr. Boehner’s House Republicans have passed a bill that extends the 2 percentage-point payroll-tax cut into 2012, and coupled it with the Medicare, unemployment and pipeline provisions. They offset the bill’s costs by freezing federal workers’ salaries and slowing parts of the Democrats’ health care law.

Mr. Obama has vowed to veto that bill, saying the salary freeze would cut spending too deeply. Instead, he wants the bill to raise taxes on wealthy Americans.

But Senate Democrats have repeatedly tried and failed to get a tax-increase plan through their chamber, falling far short of the 60 votes needed to avert a filibuster.

On Wednesday, Sen. Charles E. Schumer, New York Democrat, said his party would consider dropping the tax increase idea.

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