This article is from the archive of our partner .

Defying President Obama's threat to veto a payroll tax extension tied to approval of the Keystone XL pipeline project, House Speaker John Boehner told colleagues today that the GOP would include the provision anyway. The move sweetens the deal for rank-and-file House Republicans but sets the stage for a high stakes end-of-year clash with President Obama.

The plan Boehner introduced at a closed-door meeting Thursday will roil President Obama for two reasons. The first is the green-lighting of the oil sands pipeline Keystone XL, which environmentalists have been hammering the White House on for months. The second is a provision to do away with the Earned Income Tax Credit payments to undocumented workers, an issue the president has said doesn't belong in the current talks. On Thursday, Boehner defended the pipeline provision, saying it "will put tens of thousands of Americans to work immediately, it has bipartisan support in the House and Senate and as the prime minister of Canada said, this is a no-brainer."

Clearly, it's not a no-brainer for the president who on Wednesday told reporters, "Any effort to try to tie Keystone to the payroll tax cut I will reject." He added that the payroll tax "is something that House Republicans, as well as Senate Republicans" want, "so it shouldn't be held hostage for any other issues that they may be concerned about."