The Golden Report

12 DAYS UNTIL IOWA
19 DAYS UNTIL NEW HAMPSHIRE

BREAKING: A magnitude 5.9 earthquake has struck near Christchurch, New Zealand, the US Geological Survey reports

TOP STORY: A deal.

Late this afternoon, Speaker of the House John Boehner, looking weary and defeated after a week of intense negotiations, came to the microphones to announce that he had reached a deal with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to have the House pass the Senate bill extending the payroll tax cut for two months, adding a provision that seeks to accommodate the burden that some businesses may face from having to adjust their payroll filings as a result of the legislation.

He expected that the House and Senate would both act before Christmas- meaning tomorrow- to pass the bill by unanimous consent. That is, unless one member objects which, while entirely possible, is considered unlikely.

THE LATEST- from The Hill- “House Republican Leaders Cave- Agree To Pass Two-Month Bill”

“Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) announced the agreement with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) Thursday evening after briefing rank-and-file House Republicans on a conference call. The House has agreed to pass a version of the Senate’s two-month payroll tax cut legislation, with a fix demanded by Republicans to make implementation easier.

According to a lawmaker who participated in the House GOP conference call, Boehner told the rank-and-file members that a deal was struck and the deed had been done. Unlike an extended phone call on Saturday, where members voiced extreme opposition to a Senate compromise, the Thursday conference call was one-way, and members were only allowed to listen in.

The agreement capped a disastrous week for Boehner, who was first forced into a fight with Senate Republicans by his own angry members and then was abandoned by senior Republicans, including Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), the 2008 presidential nominee, and Karl Rove, the chief strategist for the last Republican president.

“I don’t think this is any time for celebration,” Boehner said as he announced the agreement in the basement of a nearly empty Capitol.

Asked if he caved on the issue, the Speaker replied: “You know, sometimes it’s hard to do the right thing, and sometimes it’s politically difficult to do the right thing.”

STATEMENT FROM SPEAKER BOEHNER announcing the deal:

“Senator Reid and I have reached an agreement that will ensure taxes do not increase for working families on January 1 while ensuring that a complex new reporting burden is not unintentionally imposed on small business job creators.  Under the terms of our agreement, a new bill will be approved by the House that reflects the bipartisan agreement in the Senate along with new language that allows job creators to process and withhold payroll taxation under the same accounting structure that is currently in place.  The Senate will join the House in immediately appointing conferees, with instructions to reach agreement in the weeks ahead on a full-year payroll tax extension.  We will ask the House and Senate to approve this agreement by unanimous consent before Christmas.  I thank our Members – particularly those who have remained here in the Capitol with the holidays approaching – for their efforts to enact a full-year extension of the payroll tax cut for working families.”

STATEMENT FROM MAJORITY LEADER REID affirming the deal-

“I am grateful that the voices of reason have prevailed and Speaker Boehner has agreed to pass the Senate’s bipartisan compromise. Year-long extensions of the payroll tax cut, unemployment insurance and Medicare payments for physicians has always been our goal, and Democrats will not rest until we have passed them. But there remain important differences between the parties on how to implement these policies, and it is critical that we protect middle-class families from a tax increase while we work them out.

“I look forward to appointing members of my caucus to continue negotiations towards a year-long agreement. Two months is not a long time, and I expect the negotiators to work expeditiously to forge year-long extensions of these critical policies.”

STATEMENT FROM PRESIDENT OBAMA trumpeting what has been a very good week for his presidency-

“For the past several weeks, I’ve stated consistently that it was critical that Congress not go home without preventing a tax increase on 160 million working Americans. Today, I congratulate members of Congress for ending the partisan stalemate by reaching an agreement that meets that test.

Because of this agreement, every working American will keep his or her tax cut – about $1,000 for the average family. That’s about $40 in every paycheck. Vital unemployment insurance will continue for millions of Americans who are looking for work.  And when Congress returns, I urge them to keep working to reach an agreement that will extend this tax cut and unemployment insurance for all of 2012 without drama or delay.

This is good news, just in time for the holidays. This is the right thing to do to strengthen our families, grow our economy, and create new jobs.  This is real money that will make a real difference in people’s lives. And I want to thank every American who raised your voice to remind folks in this town what this debate was all about. It was about you. And today, your voices made all the difference.”

TONIGHT, THE PRESIDENT TWEETED FROM @WHITEHOUSE:

Thanks to all who shared #40dollars stories. Today’s victory is yours. Keep making your voices heard – it makes all the difference. –bo

PAYROLL TAKEAWAYS:

1/ This debate was a big deal. The question is how big a deal it remains weeks and months from now. Will it be seen as a defining moment in the relationship between President Obama and Congress, between Democrats and Republicans, between Republicans and the Tea Party- or will this debate, similar to the others we have seen this year over federal funding and the debt ceiling, be eclipsed by the next big battle?

2/ The White House found its voice. After a year of trying, and often coming up short, in its negotiations with Congress and after continued difficulty messaging and communicating with the public, the White House’s operation has seemingly come together over the last week. The #40Dollars campaign was really the first time the formal White House has successfully leveraged the social media tools they mastered in the 2008 election to help them win both a policy and a political debate, in a way that related to the average American.

3/ The Speaker is severely weakened. What we don’t know is if he is damaged beyond repair or, quite possibly and alternatively, if the Tea Party Republicans who forced a change in control in the House in 2010 have finally been shunned by enough of the traditional Republican establishment. Many believe that this group of freshman representatives revolted in the summer and prevented Speaker Boehner from agreeing to a grand bargain with President Obama. This time, the Speaker was at first ready to give in to their demands but then essentially said “not this time.”

WALL STREET- from CNBC-

“Stocks pushed into the close to finish around their highest levels for the second day in a row, as banks surged and Wall Street shrugged off fears of a global economic slowdown.

Financials, energy and technology — the market’s principal weak spot recently — led gainers, while commodities, particularly mining-related stocks, showed weakness. Consumer staples was the worst of the 10 Standard & Poor’s 500 sectors during a day in which the market traded in a tight range throughout the session.”

• DOW up 62
• NASDAQ up 21
• S&P 500 up 10

CAMPAIGN 2012:

Former President George H. W. Bush endorsed Gov. Mitt Romney today.

(Earlier this year, Romney was the only one of the current presidential candidates to attend a tribute event for Pres. Bush at the Kennedy Center in Washington organized by the Points of Light Institute. THE EVENING REPORT was there that night and met President Bush and Governor Romney)

RON PAUL is surging in Iowa, although his campaign is coming under new questions about documents that have surfaced (similar- maybe even identical- to ones that surfaced with allegations of racism in 2008). Yesterday, Paul even walked out of an interview with CNN’s Glorida Borger.

And as NBC’s Domenico Montanaro reports, there may be more skeletons in the closet set to come out in these final days before the Caucus:

• No federal regulations for car safety, medicines, even air traffic control
• Don’t regulate raw milk:
• Heroin, marijuana, cocaine, prostitution OK if states allow them
• - No air conditioning for troops (as a way to bring them home)
• Against the Americans with Disabilities Act
• No FEMA
• Believes Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid are unconstitutional

The question is how many of these past statements and positions, many which are quintessentially Ron Paul, will have staying power.

GINGRICH HAS A NEW NICKNAME FOR ROMNEY- via National Journal-

“When a Massachusetts moderate says I’m not conservative, it makes me want to laugh when he goes down that road,” Gingrich told radio host Tony Powers, responding to the former Bay State governor’s frequent charge. “When a Massachusetts moderate says Newt Gingrich is not conservative enough, other than break up laughing I don’t know what the correct response would be.”

Gingrich also criticized another rival, Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, who also has run ads critical of the former House speaker. “Paul’s case is different because he believes in legalizing drugs … thinks it’s OK for Iran to have a nuclear weapon and believes Americans are responsible for 9/11, which makes no sense.”

GALLUP TRACKING POLL: Gingrich 27, Romney 21, Paul 12, Perry 7, Bachmann 6, Santorum 4, Huntsman 1, Cain

GINGRICH averages a 3.8% lead in an average of national polls for the Republican nomination

RON PAUL leads an average of recent polls in IOWA, topping Romney by 3.5%

In NEW HAMPSHIRE, MITT ROMNEY has a 13 point average lead over Newt Gingrich

The near-reverse is the case in SOUTH CAROLINA, where GINGRICH has a 16 point lead over Romney

And in FLORIDA, the last of the early primary states (at the end of January), GINGRICH retains a 18 point lead over Mitt Romney.

FINALLY…Matt Damon still has some beef with President Obama. Actually, a lot of beef. And he told Elle Magazine that the President should think about leaving after one term. From the Huffington Post-

“I’ve talked to a lot of people who worked for Obama at the grassroots level. One of them said to me, ‘Never again. I will never be fooled again by a politician,’” Damon tells the magazine. “You know, a one-term president with some balls who actually got stuff done would have been, in the long run of the country, much better.”

Referring to the Occupy Wall Street movement, Damon continued: “If the Democrats think that they didn’t have a mandate — people are literally without any focus or leadership, just wandering out into the streets to yell right now because they are so pissed off … Imagine if they had a leader.”

The slam follows in the same vein as a number of other criticisms Damon has made of the President and the Democrats, including in March, when he criticized Obama’s education policy.

“I really think he misinterpreted his mandate. A friend of mine said to me the other day, I thought it was a great line, ‘I no longer hope for audacity,’” Damon told CNN host Piers Morgan. “He’s doubled down on a lot of things, going back to education… the idea that we’re testing kids and we’re tying teachers salaries to how kids are performing on tests, that kind of mechanized thinking has nothing to do with higher order. We’re training them, not teaching them.”

HAPPY HANUKKAH!

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