Actually, because we are at the end of a congressional session, if he does not sign it, the bill will not become law. This is called a “pocket veto”, and only can happen if a law is passed within 10 days of the end of a congressional session, such as now.
So he will have to sign it for it to become law. My guess is he’ll do a big signing ceremony, and use it to again claim that he won’t bargain on the debt limit.
The “urgency” was always fictional. Obama had already stated that he wouldn’t actually start cutting anything in January, and the tax rate increases wouldn’t actually apply until people do their taxes, which for quarterly filers wasn’t until March.
Obama could control the withholding amounts directly, notwithstanding the tax rates, and I believe the changes to withholding were already “on hold”.
The SS tax increase is not, but they didn’t change that anyway.
The "urgency" was because if they didn't get it done by tomorrow, the 112th Congress would be ended and the Senate bill will have expired.
If they didn't get it done by tomorrow, they'd have to start over again with new players and a smaller Republican House and Senate.
-PJ
Thanks for the correction.... The devil is in the details and I just wasn’t thinking.