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"There is no reason all three of these priorities cannot proceed at the same time," said House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. The GOP move reflects a desire by party leaders to avoid a political hit if the payroll tax expires at the end of the month. And it would avoid burdening businesses with uncertainties regarding their payroll systems. On the other hand, jobless benefits lapsed for several weeks in 2010, and delays in adopting a so-called Medicare "doc's fix" can be dealt with by delaying the processing of Medicare claims. "It is prudent for our leadership to take whatever action is necessary to ensure American workers are not hit with a tax increase on March 1," said Rep. Dave Camp, R-Mich., the lead GOP negotiator. The White House did not embrace the House leadership idea. "We are willing to work with them to offset it in a responsible way," said White House Press Secretary Jay Carney. "And we expect Congress to get its work done and to extend it
-- the payroll tax cut, unemployment insurance and the doc fix." The move by the GOP leadership still would leave it to negotiators to come up with $30 billion or $40 billion in deficit savings to extend jobless benefits averaging about $300 a week to people who have been out of work for more than six months. Republicans have pressed to cut the number of weeks from the maximum 99 permitted under current policies and economic conditions down to as few as 59 weeks. They also are pressing to require people receiving unemployment to enroll in GED classes and allow states to condition benefits on the passage of drug tests.
[Associated
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