House Speaker John Boehner has effectively stopped a Senate plan to extend a payroll tax cut, and the Democrats are not happy.
Richard Blumenthal, the state's junior senator, said during a short interview that the speaker of the house "essentially caved to the right-wing, extremist fringe in the house."
"It's a small minority of extremists, holding hostage the entire Congress and America, and potentially sabotaging the economy," Blumenthal said.
In what is perhaps an attempt to kill by committee, Boehner suggested going to conference on the bill. The two-month compromise, overwhelmingly passed in the Senate, went through after a plan to extend the cut for a year was stalled.
Of course, Blumenthal may only be echoing the Dmeocratic leadership. As Rep. Nancy Pelosi said in a news conference, "It's just the radical, tea party Republicans who are holding up this tax cut for the American people and jeopardizing our economic growth."
And he's not the only one. Connecticut democratic Rep. Jim Himes tweeted yesterday that "The fate of every paycheck in the country now in the hands of the Tea Party."