Republicans claimed enough support to push legislation through the House on Tuesday that would continue a payroll tax cut for 160 million workers, a vote that would shift the battleground to a staunchly opposed Senate.

House GOP lawmakers emerged from a closed-door meeting Tuesday morning expressing confidence and daring President Barack Obama and the Democratic-led Senate to oppose them at a time when the economy remains on its knees. The roughly $180 billion bill would also extend unemployment benefits and prevent deep cuts in Medicare payments to doctors.

"You can't be for the middle class" and oppose the tax cuts and job creation the bill contains, said House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va.

"Mr. President, we can't wait," Cantor said. "That's why we are putting forward this bill to make sure that we are there for the middle class of this country."

The House GOP bill has virtually no chance of prevailing in the Senate, in part because it includes language forcing work on the proposed Keystone XL oil pipeline from Canada that Obama wants to delay until after next year's elections. Democrats want to extend the payroll tax cut and unemployment benefits and block the cut for doctors, but say the Republican package asks too much of low- and middle-income earners and not enough of the wealthy...