Obama: No link between tax cut, pipeline

WASHINGTON, Dec. 7 (UPI) -- President Barack Obama said Wednesday he would reject any effort to tie a payroll tax cut extension to a controversial U.S.-Canadian pipeline or other issues.

"If the payroll tax cut is attached to a whole bunch of extraneous issues not related to making sure that the American people's taxes don't go up on Jan. 1, then it's not something that I'm going to accept," Obama said after a meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

"And I don't expect to have to veto it because I expect they're going to have enough sense over on Capitol Hill to do the people's business, and not try to load it up with a bunch of politics."

He singled out TransCanada's proposed Keystone XL pipeline to carry oil from Alberta, Canada, to refineries along the southern U.S. coast, saying, "Any effort to try to tie Keystone to the payroll tax cut I will reject."

Obama called the Social Security payroll tax cut extension "something that House Republicans, as well as Senate Republicans, should want to do regardless of any other issues. The question is going to be, are they willing to vote against a proposal that ensures that Americans, at a time when the recovery is still fragile, don't see their taxes go up by $1,000. So it shouldn't be held hostage for any other issues that they may be concerned about."

The president said his "top priority as president" is "creating jobs faster and growing the economy faster."

Obama said the United States and Canada would "make it easier to conduct trade and travel that creates jobs."

Harper said the president told him he has an "open mind" on the pipeline while Obama said it would be subject to a "vigorous process" for review.

He noted Canada is America's single biggest trading partner and exports to that country support about 1.7 million U.S. jobs.