Congress Passes Two-Month Payroll Tax Cut Extension
ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST, "ERIN BURNETT OUTFRONT": Thanks, John. Two Penn State leaders charged with lying in the sexual abuse case against coach Jerry Sandusky. Former assistant coach Mike McQueary, the one who saw Sandusky showering with a boy, testified today. The death of Robert Champion Jr., a Florida A&M; University drum major who died last month ruled a homicide today. A lawyer for Robert's family comes out front. And the bottom line in the payroll tax, a government shutdown averted and the payroll tax in countdown. Let's go OUTFRONT. I'm Erin Burnett. Out front tonight, breaking news on what matters to all Americans watching tonight, the payroll tax. Democrats and Republicans have been fighting for weeks over how to pass an extension. Now, if it gets extended, the average American will save about $1,000 in taxes next year. Senate Rs and Ds have been meeting right now. Republican Senator John Thune of South Dakota was in the room stepping out. We're hope, sir, you will tell us some good news. Our Kate Bolduan has been reporting a deal for a two month extension. What can you tell us?</s>SEN. JOHN THUNE, (R) SOUTH DAKOTA: Right, it's a two-month extension, Erin. It has unemployment insurance. It has the payroll tax cut extension and what we call the doc fix, which deals with physician reimbursements under Medicare. And it also has the Keystone pipeline language that was in the House also in this particular Senate bill. So I feel really good about where we are considering the fact that the Senate Democrats I don't think were comfortable with the pay- fors that were being proposed. And we would like to have gotten a full year like what was passed through the House of Representatives. But this is where we are. We get a two-month extension of the three things I mentioned, plus we get the pipeline.</s>BURNETT: OK. Two months, though, is really not something that makes people feel very good. I mean, we're going to be having the same conversation in 60 days with another countdown?</s>THUNE: Well, my guess is we probably will. We'll have to revisit this issue. That was not the preferred alternative for many of us. We wanted to see the same thing that passed through the House of Representatives pass in the Senate, which was a one-year extension. But the Democrats would not accept credible offsets to pay for it in the Senate. So this is what we got down to in terms of a package that we could get support from both Republicans and Democrats for. For Republicans, this is a big victory in the sense that the Keystone pipeline was really important and we think the real jobs component in this bill. This is the thing that creates jobs in the near term.</s>BURNETT: I'm curious, though, because there were so many things that Democrats liked that some Republicans liked, as well, that could've paid for this. And it seems, you know, some might say, look, you Republicans, you just pushed for some of the things that Democrats really didn't want when there were some things, like increasing fees to mortgage lenders or means testing for some on Medicare, that they would have been on board with that would've funded this thing for the year.</s>THUNE: Right, and we were all in favor of those things, Erin. I'm not saying -- what I'm suggesting is I don't think that Senator Reid could sell some of those pay-fors to his caucus. He couldn't get Democrats onboard with supporting some of those. In fact, the pay-for that will pay for the two-month extension is the increase and the guarantee fees on the GSEs. So that's something that everybody agreed on. That was something that both Democrats and Republicans felt comfortable with. But the other pay-fors, many of which are things we supported and we thought we could get Democrat support for, evidently he could not.</s>BURNETT: You say you feel good. I feel a little bit let down. I was hopeful you would come up with something more than two months, and especially when you all wanted to do this and you agreed to pay for it. If you can't get this done for a full year, what in the world can you guys get done?</s>THUNE: Well, look, I don't disagree with you. I'm disappointed, as well, that this isn't a full year. We had a full year passed out of the House of Representatives. They sent it to the Senate. The pay-fors were pay-fors most in the Senate would support. But there's a lot of opposition to the way this thing was paid for. And so to get it down to a level where everybody was comfortable with the offsets being used to pay for those three things, this is where we ended up. What that simply means is we will revisit this in another two months, and obviously, we'll have probably these same debates all over again. It's not a perfect solution by any stretch.</s>BURNETT: No.</s>THUNE: But it's what we're able to get through.</s>BURNETT: This Keystone pipeline, let me ask you about that. The president will have the right to say he doesn't want to do it because of national security concerns. Do you think he'll do that? And I'm also curious because the current version of this pipeline, obviously, you know, this is going to go through your state, and you're going to benefit from it. So I get that you support it. But how many jobs are we really going to get? Some studies said we were going to lose jobs because it's going to hurt farmland. Others studies said we're going to gain 583,000 jobs, which frankly seems a little absurd. And the state department said only 5,000 jobs. It seems like nobody has any clue.</s>THUNE: Right, well, the president -- what he has -- if he has to determine this is not in the national interest in order for it not to go forward. But with regard to what it does for jobs -- and the numbers you have used are not numbers I've seen. We've seen a 20,000 number jobs created in the construction phase, and then also, of course, lots of jobs after that. But in my state of South Dakota, for example, when keystone one went through there, it created about 2,400 jobs full-time and part- time, and that was more than predicted that would be created. It's good for my state, obviously, in terms of jobs and the economic impact it would have and a lot of other states, as well. But think about the other issues here. This is an energy security issue. General James Jones, the president's former national security adviser came out today and said this is in the national interest. This helps make us less dependent upon foreign sources of energy. And if we don't benefit from it, that energy is going to go someplace else, probably west toward China.</s>BURNETT: All right, well, Senator Thune thank you very much. And let me confirm what your sense is as to whether this has been vetted through the House. Is this going to be voted on tomorrow? Or is it possible this two-month deal you have somehow doesn't happen?</s>THUNE: It's never final until it's final, of course. But we had our -- our caucus met. I think there was general acceptance and pretty broad support for it. The Democrats I think are meeting, as well tonight. My understanding is at least it has these elements in it I think that the House will be for it. We'll vote on it tomorrow. If everything moves forward according to plan, the House will have to come back and vote on it sometime probably Sunday or Monday.</s>BURNETT: I guess they go on vacation later than you do. Thank you, senator.</s>THUNE: Thanks, Erin.</s>BURNETT: Let's bring in John Avlon, CNN contributor. So not quite 24 hours ago we were sitting here, and we were upset about a two-month deal because it doesn't do anything. It doesn't put a lot of money in people's pockets, doesn't cause hiring, and we're back to square one on something they all agreed on. And here we are, John.</s>JOHN AVLON, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Here we are. This breaking news just shows how addicted Washington, D.C. is to brinksmanship. They can't get past the kabuki theater even when they agree. And we have kicking the can down the road two more months, and we just heard Senator Thune say we'll probably be back here in two months.</s>BURNETT: No, he said it. He said we'll be talking about the exact same thing. My problem here is you made a list of 10 different ways to propose to pay for it. Some the Democrats hated, some the Republicans hated. And yet, that left seven or eight. And they couldn't use them.</s>AVLON: And they couldn't get it done past kicking the can because apparently Republicans would not give up on delinking the Keystone pipeline despite as Senator Rand Paul said a few nights ago. He said let's delink it from the payroll tax and give it an up or down vote. Keep it straight, keep it honest. This just shows how much bad blood there is between the two parties, how much distrust, and it shows that Pew poll that said two- thirds of Americans believe that Congress should be kicked out, there's a reason for that frustration out there. This is just the latest example.</s>BURNETT: And on top of it, one thing that's getting buried in this because we have this breaking -- I'm putting quotes around it because this is a two-month deal, but the government shutdown was averted. In that case there were eight threats of that this year, but they're going to fund through next September. You say, great, there's not going to be this problem until next year one month before the election.</s>AVLON: That might be the good news. Right, exactly. We'll see the specific timing. But that is good news, right? We'll hopefully not have a brinksmanship about lack of money in a presidential year. That should be filed under no-brainer, right? Congratulations, you're not going to shut down the government. That's the standard of success right now?</s>BURNETT: Yes, pretty much, John, it is.</s>AVLON: That seems to be the success. So we've got a payroll tax cut, it shows 160 million Americans going to be affected by this potentially, they're not going to see their taxes go up immediately.</s>BURNETT: That's an average of up to $160 over two months. The whole point is to make you feel wealthier and money to spend on things, and you don't even know if you're going to have it in month three?</s>AVLON: This falls short. This creates that exact atmosphere of uncertainty that people have been complaining about.</s>BURNETT: That's right.</s>AVLON: So, you know, look, kicking the can down the road, it's great they're going to pay for the government, but this payroll tax gets filed under epic fail again.</s>BURNETT: Thank you very much, John Avlon. Still "OUTFRONT," presidential candidate Mitt Romney picks up a big endorsement today, South Carolina governor Nikki Haley. Will her yes matter? And the SEC files suit against the former CEOs of Fannie and Freddie, Mac and Mae. The U.S. government giving them a $125 billion in a form of a bailout right now. Do we need them? And radioactive material -- a team from a nuclear reactor found in a passenger's luggage in Moscow today going to Tehran. We have the latest developments in tonight's installment.