President Barack Obama is welcoming a deal on extending a payroll tax cut and congratulating Congress for ending its "partisan stalemate."

The president issued a statement Thursday evening moments after House Speaker John Boehner announced that House Republicans were reversing course and accepting a two-month extension agreed to by the Senate and supported by the president.

Obama says the deal, which also extends unemployment benefits, is good news just in time for the holidays and the right thing to do for American families and the economy.

And he is thanking Americans who pressured Congress to get it done.

(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

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