Obama pushes two-month freeze on doc pay

UPDATED: 5:15 p.m. More news on the proposed payroll tax holiday extension is expected tonight following a scheduled conference call among House Republicans.

President Barack Obama on Thursday stood firm in his position that House members pass the Senate's short-term extension of a payroll tax holiday that would also avert a 27% cut in Medicare physician reimbursement by placing a two-month freeze on payments to the nation's doctors.

“This is not just my view,” Obama said during a news conference at the White House. “Just a few hours ago, this is exactly what the Republican leader of the Senate said we should do. Democrats agree with the Republican leader of the Senate.”

Earlier Thursday, political tensions intensified in Washington as Sen. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) issued a statement that urged the House to pass the Senate bill, and that also called on Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) to appoint conferees on a long-term bill. That legislation, which the House passed last week, would extend a middle-class payroll tax cut for one year and provide a two-year fix to the sustainable growth-rate formula for physicians through a 1% payment increase for doctors in 2012 and 2013.

“If we don't get this done before Jan. 1, taxes will go up for 160 million middle-class, working Americans,” House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said at a news conference about the short-term extension. “Unemployment benefits will expire for 2.3 million Americans by mid-February, and 48 million seniors on Medicare will have their access to doctors put at risk,” he continued. “We ought not to be creating that kind of uncertainty and anxiety among the American people.”