The big issue that I have with this whole payroll tax debate is that Republicans are not being honest with anyone, including themselves. This debate is not about the payroll tax cut, everyone wants the payroll tax cut to be extended.
Republicans are upset that they aren’t getting more in return for their support for something that they don’t view as “their fight.” Republicans viewed the debt ceiling debate as an issue that could divide the electorate against the President and they were correct in that assessment. The problem was and is that the electorate is equally divided with regards to who bears the blame for forcing that issue. Democrats actually lead Republicans in the Generic Congressional ballot, suggesting that Republicans aren’t winning the message war on the debt and deficits front and that Democrats aren’t winning as handily as they should be on jobs.
Democrats are making jobs their issue and the problem for Republicans is that they are concerned about their pet projects passing the house instead of meeting the Democrats on jobs and beating them in the messaging war there. It would make sense to get into a fight about the single most important issue of our time, it makes absolutely no sense to get into a hypothetical fight that we all know is a loser just to prove that you have the big set of balls that everyone admits you have. This is a dead argument and what’s frustrating to Republicans in this instance is the same thing that’s frustrating to Democrats and that is that Republican intransigence is even more annoying when you make issues out of things that don’t need to be issues and right now, the payroll tax cut doesn’t need to be an issue. After all, we all agree that it ought to be extended. Republicans are playing the outrage game and the really sad part about it is that they’re losing at their own game.
The Republican leadership in the House is trying to get everyone worked into a tizzy over the fact that the payroll tax extension is only for two months instead of for a full year. The reason that the payroll tax holiday extension is only two months as opposed to a year is because Republicans refused to agree to an extension for a year, yet they’re trying to blame Democrats for it when Democrats weren’t even involved in the problem to begin with. You can only point your finger at someone who is in the room. When you attempt to deflect blame by pointing to someone who had nothing to do with what you’re talking about, you look like the idiot that you are trying to act like you’re not and that not only makes you look like a bigger idiot, it makes you look like an idiot who is looking for a fight and no one wants to be around an idiot, let alone someone who is also actively looking for a fight.
