Cr Note: You guys, the establishment Republicans, no matter how hard we try to tell you, like poor marksmen, you keep missing the target! You have gratuitously allowed the mainstream media and the Liberals, to phrase the argument yet again! You further assume that the American people don't understand what is happening.

We understand completely, and yet, you do not seem to trust us. You choose, even yet again, to give into the President's plastic optics. We all know that this extension will be about as effective as chicken shit on a pump handle, and yet you do what the Statists dictate out of simple fear, rather than out of what you know is right.

Social Security is broke and you are depleting the fund along with all individual retirement plans in the process. You should learn to be willing to play out your game of chicken with the Statists, in victory rather than defeat, come what may.

You did the same thing on the debt increase limit. You ended up screwing the puppy on that one as well, despite my and many others telling you to stick to your guns. Act on principle, not on optics, and watch your favorability levels rise like a rocket, if you at least have an army of Congress people explaining your actions.

I mean, seriously, do you not take a hint from the current and dismal 11% ratings? Do you yet assume that this is because you do not bend over enough for the Liberals?

Get real Congress! ~ BLS

Associated Press

House Republican leaders abruptly caved and agreed to demands by President Barack Obama, congressional Democrats and fellow Republicans for a two-month extension of tax cuts for all workers.

The agreement, struck after some of the staunchest House conservatives began to retreat, also would renew jobless benefits for almost two million people and spare doctors from a big cut in Medicare span#ExplainsLink a, span#ExplainsLink a img, span#ExplainsLink a:visited img, span#ExplainsLink a:visited { border: medium none; } payments.

The decision came after an intense day of maneuvering in which the Senate's top Republican leader, Kentuckian Mitch McConnell, urged the House to accept the Senate's short-term fix and negotiations later on a year-long extension. Obama, too, chided Republicans for blocking something all parties agreed upon.

Then a pair of GOP freshmen — the group most opposed to a short-term agreement — pivoted and urged a quick resolution before the tax cut expires Dec. 31. Absent a quick agreement, workers faced an increase of two percentage points in their Social Security taxes, or $1,000 a year for someone earning $50,000.

"I don't think that my constituents should have a tax increase because of Washington's dysfunction," said freshman Rep. Sean Duffy, R-Wis., a former reality show star.

"An `all or nothing' attitude is not what my constituents need now," Rep. Rick Crawford, R-Ark., wrote in a letter to House Speaker John Boehner. "We are now in a position...that requires Republicans to not only demand a willingness to compromise, but to offer it as well."

The rapid-fire developments underscored the political peril that House Republicans had courted after they rejected the two-month deal and insisted on dragging the Senate back into session to do it their way. The standoff rippled beyond Washington to Iowa, where Republican presidential candidates were making closing arguments less than two weeks before the caucuses that begin the nomination process.

Under the arrangement between Boehner and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., the House would pass a new bill mirroring the Senate measure — with modest tweaks to address concerns of payroll processors — in exchange for a guarantee that Reid would immediately name Senate negotiators on the House's separate, year-long measure.

Just hours earlier, Boehner had criticized the idea.

"A two-month extension only perpetuates the uncertainty that too many employers already have in dealing with the economy and what's coming out of Washington," Boehner told reporters.

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