Dems Find Silver Lining In Congressional Mess

[Flaylo]

Payroll Tax Cut: Democrats See House GOP Opposition To Senate Deal As A Gift

WASHINGTON -- Many Democrats think House Republicans have given them an early political Christmas present by opposing the Senate deal to extend the middle-class payroll tax cut for two months.

"Without a doubt, this is a gift," a senior Democratic aide told HuffPost, predicting that if the House GOP kills the compromise, Democrats will hammer them relentlessly through the holidays and beyond for hurting the middle class.

"If Republicans block this vote," the aide said, "we are going to spend a month back in every member's state talking about how we reached an overwhelming compromise to extend unemployment benefits and a middle-class tax cut, but that it was blocked by House Republicans, whose only concern all year has been keeping millionaires and billionaires from paying a penny more in taxes."

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is so certain that GOP opposition to the deal is a political loser that it is already campaigning on that opposition, launching a website and a round of robocalls targeting 20 Republicans in swing districts.

"If House Republicans block this bipartisan compromise it will be a middle class mugging of $1,000 from 160 million middle income Americans," said DCCC Chairman Steve Israel in a statement.

Democrats feel they are on especially strong ground because most of the GOP senators voted for the two-month extension of the 2 percent payroll tax break for salaries up to $110,000. Republicans in the Senate backed it because they've asked for all the measures in the deal, including language about the controversial Keystone XL pipeline that they insisted on.

If only the GOP listened to the people and not their partisan hack shit.