Speaker John Boehner and Majority Leader Eric Cantor ready to deal? (Larry Downing/Reuters)

Speaker John Boehner and Majority Leader Eric Cantor ready to deal? (Larry Downing/Reuters)

Knowing that they're losing the public opinion battle, House Republicans are caving on a part of the payroll tax cut/unemployment insurance/Medicare payments legislation. They have offered to decouple the payroll tax cut from the others issues included in the legislation and pass a clean 10-month extension of the cut.

Significantly, and in a reflection of just how badly they're losing that PR battle, they've decided to treat this tax cut for the middle class as they've treated tax cuts for the wealthy, and not require that they be paid for.



The Republican proposal reflects the desire to avoid being blamed for an impasse, as they were for a breakdown in talks that almost caused the tax break to expire at the end of December, said one of the staffers, a Republican leadership aide who spoke on condition of anonymity. Democrats have proposed a surtax on the income of those earning more than $1 million a year. The Republicans' proposal is an attempt to defuse the tax issue, the Republican aide said.

They were definitely losing on that issue, and apparently feel that they can cut better deals by forcing the spending cuts they want in the other issues, unemployment benefits and the Medicare "doc fix." They continue to demand demeaning restrictions for the unemployed and cuts to Medicare or the Affordable Care Act for the other programs.

Democrats haven't yet accepted the GOP offer, likely because they do have the upper hand in negotiations on all issues when the tax cut for the middle class is included. Obviously, the GOP wants to have that issue over and done with as quickly as possible since it's a loser for them. Precisely for that reason, Democrats shouldn't be too anxious to accept their offer.