COMPROMISE

Boehner: We’ll Pass Payroll Tax Cut

But will want other GOP demands.

House Speaker John Boehner said he will pass President Obama’s payroll tax cut, but only if the Democrats give a little on other GOP policies. In a closed-door meeting Friday morning, Boehner referred to the package he’s putting forward as turning “chicken shit into chicken salad,” according to people in attendance. His proposal will include an easing of environmental regulations on boilers as a precedent to building the controversial Keystone pipeline. Boehner will have some persuading to do, since there’s a lot of internal division among the GOP on whether to greenlight major Democratic policies, but the Speaker will try to couple them with measures that the Republicans want passed. Yesterday, a minority of the Senate voted to kill Obama’s payroll tax holiday. Obama demanded that Congress pass the bill before the holiday break, or “we can all spend Christmas here together.”