(Image source: C-SPAN)

BY CHRISTINA HARTMAN

Victory on Capitol Hill -- but this one’s short-lived.
Congress has finally approved a two-month extension of the much-debated payroll tax cut. Finally -- as in -- at pretty much the last minute. Bloomberg explains.

“Really it is crisis averted. We were approaching the January 1st deadline, when we were going to see the payroll tax shoot up from 4.2% to 6.2%. It was going to equate to $40 a paycheck for working Americans.”

Saving $40 bucks a paycheck sounds nice, but remember -- we’re talkin’ just two months. For The Washington Post, conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer calls it “the worst piece of legislation in years.”

“As a matter of practicality alone, it makes no sense. … What business operates two months at a time? … But making economic sense is not the point. The tax-holiday extension ... is the perfect campaign ploy: an election-year bribe that has the additional virtue of seizing the tax issue for the Democrats.”

A quick look at how it all shook out: Jobless benefits also got extended along with the Medicare reimbursement rate already in place. And -- House Republicans got something they wanted: making payroll reporting requirements a little easier for businesses.

If it IS a victory for the Dems -- it’s a short-lived one -- cuz two months is gonna come and go in no time. But The Hill says -- this is also a win for the GOP.

“Despite the heartburn the payroll fight caused Republican leaders, the bill in many ways represents a policy victory for Republicans, as it does not pay for the payroll tax extension through higher taxes... It also includes language that requires the Obama administration to make a decision on the Keystone oil sands pipeline extension within 60 days, something President Obama initially said he would veto.”


So what happens next? Well, that not-so-small task of figuring out how to get everyone on board with a full-year extension. That’s largely up to a conference committee. Politico reports...

“The focus now turns to the conference committee. … For those negotiators, ‘there is nothing off the table, everything is on the table,’ [Senate Majority Leader Harry] Reid said — signaling that Democratic priorities such as the millionaire surtax could return.”

You might remember -- the millionaire surtax is part of the reason this took so long in the first place: Republicans were having none of it. So... new year, same old squabbles?