Drew Angerer/The New YorkTimes President Obama signed the $858 billion tax and unemployment insurance bill into law on Friday.
President Obama signed the sweeping $858 billion tax bill into law on Friday afternoon, the culmination of a lawmaking process that featured intensive negotiations with Republicans and loud expressions of frustration from Democrats.
It was a rare sight in an auditorium of the old Executive Office Building: Senator Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader from Kentucky, looked on as the Democratic president signed legislation that he said would be a big boost for the middle class.
The package extends the lowered tax rates from the Bush era for two more years, and extends jobless benefits for the long-term unemployed for another 13 months. The lower tax rates would otherwise have expired at the end of the year, and the jobless benefits had already lapsed.
“This is real money that’s going to make a real difference in people’s lives,” Mr. Obama said. “As soon as I sign this legislation, two million Americans who lost their jobs through no fault of their own will know with certainty that they won’t lose their unemployment insurance.”
There are plenty more bills on the agenda of the lame-duck Congress that Mr. Obama would like to sign into law before he heads to Hawaii for a holiday vacation next week. But the president took the opportunity of the signing on Friday to make light of the rare sight of him shaking hands in congratulation with Republican lawmakers.
“There will be moments, I’m certain, over the next couple of years when the holiday spirit won’t be as abundant as it is today,” Mr. Obama said, laughing.
Everybody else in the room laughed too.
Then, Mr. Obama sat down, observing an old Washington tradition of using many pens to slowly sign his name (11 this time; he used 22 to sign the health legislation earlier this year). The pens become coveted souvenirs.