President Barack Obama wants the pay roll tax extension to be passed. The Democratic and Republican leaders want that extension to be passed as well, according to reps for both sides. The sticking point remains on how to accomplish the task of getting the bill passed and paid for. Not only are the American people quickly becoming more and more frustrated with Congress and its inability to compromise for the greater good, but economists are warning that failure to pass the measure could have potentially devastating effects to the slowly recovering economy.

Economists, citing the gross domestic product (GDP), have said that a failure to pass the bill would cause that figure to fall by .4 percentage points in the year's first quarter. The GDP is the broadest measure of the US's economic health and could potentially signal larger problems.

Failure to pass the extension could possibly raise taxes by roughly two thousand dollars a year but would cause other problems as well. Not only would it slow or possibly stop any semblance of economic growth, it could leave the economy so vulnerable that any disturbance could send it back to recession numbers. One such disturbance that is looming is the European debt crisis that could potentially topple the economies of other countries outside of the European Union.

Congress is faced with a bill that takes into account much more than this single measure. In addition, this vote will decide on the extension of unemployment benefits for those who have out of a job for long periods of time. The third measure included in this bill is a change to the alternate minimum tax rate.

Disagreements about how to fund the measure are keeping the vote from going through. The total cost is estimated to be $120 billion a year and is keeping both sides dug into their trenches, deadlocked on a vote for a measure that is set to expire on December 31.

John Boehner, Speaker of the House, was alleged to have led his followers to believe that he was going to vote for the measure and then balked. His spokesperson said that that was untrue- Boehner never indicated that he would vote favorably for the measure because it was only a temporary, stop gap measure. The original plan had been endorsed by the White House and Senate Republicans which would have prevented a steep increase in taxes on the middle class workers in the nation.