ON THE HILL

Senate Republicans Slam the House

For failing to pass payroll-tax extension.

President Obama is still in Washington but Republicans in the House have begun heading home after they rejected the Senate’s bipartisan compromise to extend the payroll-tax cut Tuesday. Their Senate counterparts, meanwhile, are fuming. “It is harming the Republican Party,” Senator John McCain said on CNN. An anonymous senior Senate aide is harsher in a quote to Politico: “This is a colossal fumble by the House Republicans. Their inability to recognize a win is costing our party our long-held advantage on the key issue of tax relief. It’s time for Boehner and [House Majority Leader Eric] Cantor to look these rookies in the eye and explain how the game is won or lost.”