Republicans Make Rare Retreat on Payroll Tax Cuts—Why?

George Zornick on November 30, 2011 - 12:58pm ET

There was a time—up until last night—when Republicans would not support a payroll tax cut in order to goose the economy.

The party swallowed it in last December’s agreement on the Bush tax rates, and so this year Americans were subject to a payroll tax rate of 4.2 percent instead of 6.2 percent. But in the ensuing months, most Republicans made it clear they wouldn’t support extending the payroll tax cut again because they felt it didn’t do enough and cost too much money. “I think that it is time we stop with putting these Band-Aids over huge chest wounds,” said Representative Allen West, a Tea Party favorite from Florida. Representative Paul Ryan called it “sugar-high” economics this summer, and added later that it “simply exacerbates our debt problems in my opinion.”