Stop playing games and get control of your caucus, Speaker Boehner.

After weeks of wrangling, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., negotiated a compromise with Senator Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., to extend the payroll tax cut for another two months. This is hardly ideal legislation and a short-term solution.

Yet it's the only deal the factions could arrive at and with an 89-10 vote it obtained rare bipartisan support. It is critical to maintain the payroll tax cut that otherwise will expire Jan. 1, worth roughly $1,000 annually for the average family, affecting 160 million Americans. The psychological impact of doing nothing could do more damage to the economy than the actual income loss as citizens conclude their government is incapable of helping them and make spending decisions accordingly.

More aggravating is that Sen. McConnell sought the compromise at the urging of his fellow Republican, House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio.

On Tuesday Speaker Boehner was balking, adding new demands and telling President Obama to call the Senate back into session. What is really happening is that Speaker Boehner cannot control his renegade caucus. His tea party minions seem incapable of backing anything that the White House supports, even when that something is maintaining a tax cut aimed largely at the middle class.

Move forward with a vote on the Senate bill, Speaker Boehner. Negotiations can resume in the new year, having bought time with the tax-cut extension. To do otherwise is to hand the president a political club and damage the economy in the process.