White House GOP hopefuls mum on payroll tax bill

by Josh Lederman - 02/17/12 5:09 PM ET

The Republican presidential candidates have kept quiet about a bipartisan deal to extend the payroll tax cut, which violates the GOP campaign mantra against deficit spending.

The House easily approved the bill Friday and sent it to the Senate, where it is also expected to pass. The deal extends a tax cut both parties acknowledge must stay in place, but adds close to $90 billion to the federal deficit over the next decade, according to a Congressional Budget Office analysis released Friday.

{mosads}None of the four candidates still in the race responded to questions from The Hill about whether they supported the agreement struck by congressional leaders.

In the case of Texas Rep. Ron Paul (R), the only candidate currently in Congress, neither his campaign nor his congressional office responded to inquiries. Paul is campaigning in Idaho and Washington state Friday and was not present for the House vote.

Newt Gingrich told CBS News through a spokesman that he “would have found an offset,” but declined to say whether he supported the bill.

For the GOP hopefuls, the payroll deal presents a political quagmire. Many conservatives have lined up against the bill and said that Republicans shouldn’t cave on requiring that spending cuts be identified to pay for the extension. Lowering the deficit has been a constant drum beat on the presidential campaign trail, and the candidates have already attacked President Obama and Democrats for not taking the national debt seriously enough.

As a whole, Republicans are eager to dispense with the issue before it causes any more political damage — the party that is wary of appearing to block tax relief for the middle class during an election year. In striking the deal, GOP leaders signaled they knew this was a must-pass bill, and that strict purity on the deficit issue could hand Democrats an effective economic argument.

“The campaigns aren’t commenting because there’s no upside in commenting,” said Matt Mackowiak, a Republican strategist not affiliated with any of the candidates. “Anything they say is likely to either give Democrats something to use against them in the fall, or anger the base.”

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The GOP quagmire was evident in the Senate, where Republican senators wanted to vote against the tax bill while not wanting to block its path to the president’s desk. Senate Republicans decided against a filibuster, meaning a 51-vote margin was necessary for passage. This allowed more Senate Republicans to vote against final passage.

—Justin Sink contributed.

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