Rescue Payroll Tax Cut and Jobless Benefits From Wreckage: View

Putting longer-term issues aside, the failure of the U.S. debt supercommittee threatens immediate collateral damage. Measures to maintain short-term support for the economy were supposed to be folded into the expected deal. Two of these deserve emphasis.

Extensions to unemployment insurance, allowing claimants in some states to get benefits for 99 weeks, are about to expire. And without further action, employee payroll taxes will rise from 4.2 percent to the standard 6.2 percent at the start of next year.