President Obama has signaled that his desire to keep a “shovel ready”, energy-independent job-creator from going forward is more important than the payroll-tax cut extension he’s pushing:
The battle between the White House and Republicans over the Keystone XL pipeline escalated Wednesday with a veto threat delivered personally by President Obama.
Obama warned that he would veto an extension of the payroll-tax cut, his top legislative priority, if House Republicans link it to a measure that would force the administration to greenlight the pipeline project.
“Any effort to try to tie Keystone to the payroll-tax cut, I will reject,” Obama told reporters Wednesday after meeting at the White House with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
Obama said he would not accept a payroll-tax-holiday bill to which Republicans add “extraneous” provisions.
“I don’t expect to have to veto it because I expect they’re going to have enough sense over on Capitol Hill to do the people’s business, and not try to load it up with a bunch of politics,” the president said.
More at The Hill.