Mitt Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts, on Tuesday added his voice – and a 2012 flavor – to the growing chorus of Republican discontent with the tax compromise the party’s Congressional leaders reached with President Obama.

Writing in USA Today on Tuesday, Mr. Romney, a likely leading contender for the Republican presidential nomination in 2012, called the tax compromise “a disappointing agreement” and said the congress should work toward a better solution.

“Because the extension is only temporary, a large portion of the investment and job growth that characteristically accompanies low taxes will be lost,” Mr. Romney writes. “What some are calling a grand compromise is not grand at all, except in its price tag. The total package will cost nearly $1 trillion, resulting in substantial new borrowing at a time when we are already drowning in red ink.”

Much of the news media attention about the tax compromise has been about the split within the Democratic Party, and in particular the anger among liberals with Mr. Obama.

But the growing chasm within the Republican Party over the legislation may be more significant as Republicans gear up for the next presidential contest. Taxes are a core issue for Republicans, and at least right now, there appears to be little consensus about how to judge the deal.

As an example, Politico reports that Crossroads GPS, the group formed by big-name Republican operatives like Karl Rove and Ed Gillespie, is preparing to start an early advertisement campaign aimed at about a dozen Democrats, urging them to support the tax deal.

That a leading presidential candidate and one of the leading party fund-raising groups are on opposite sides is an indication of how many Republicans are struggling to find the right place to be on the issue.

Not far from their thoughts is the seminal role that taxes played in 1992, after President George Bush broke his “no new taxes” pledge and went on to lose re-election. It is a reminder, they know, that Republicans come down on the wrong side of the issue at their peril.

But it’s not clear what the right side is. Backing the tax package means backing a continuation of tax cuts for middle-class Americans and the wealthy. But it also means they can be accused of failing to make those cuts permanent — something many Republicans want.

And because the tax compromise will add $900 billion to the nation’s deficit, the deal is being attacked by some Tea Party activists as being fiscally irresponsible. That was one of the reasons Mr. Romney cited for his position.

“President Obama has reason to celebrate,” he wrote. “The deal delivers short-term economic stimulus, and it does so at the very time he wants it most, before the 2012 elections. But the long-term health of our great engine of prosperity will remain very much in doubt. To the twin inevitabilities of death and taxes, we may now have to add persistent high unemployment.”