The Senate Republican leadership telegraphed on the Sunday- morning talk shows that a compromise to extend unemployment compensation and the George W. Bush-era tax cuts is in the offing.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Sen. Jon Kyl (Ariz.), the Republican whip, told different interviewers that they expect Congress to vote for the tax cuts, which have been in effect for almost a decade, to continue unaltered for at least several years in exchange for an agreement to extend an emergency unemployment program that expired last week for millions of people.
“Obviously, the president won’t sign a permanent extension of the current tax rates. So we’re going to have some kind of extension. I’d like one as long as possible,” McConnell told host David Gregory on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” Moments later, he added: “I think we will extend unemployment compensation. . . . We’re working on that package. . . . I think we’re going to get there.”
Full Story: GOP leaders hint at compromise on tax cuts, jobless benefits