It looks like Republicans are about to make a novel argument. If a tax hike hits only the middle class, they're saying it's not really a tax hike. 

Beginning in January, President Obama enacted a payroll tax cut for millions of Americans, ensuring that working Americans get to keep more of the money they earn. It’s a policy that helps families, but also pumps more money back into the economy to spur growth.

Now, President Obama wants to extend those low rates. And Republicans want to raise them.

The Associated Press reports:

Many of the same Republicans who fought hammer-and-tong to keep the George W. Bush-era income tax cuts from expiring on schedule are now saying a different "temporary" tax cut should end as planned. By their own definition, that amounts to a tax increase.

We expect the GOP to scrape and claw to defend taxes for the rich. And for years, we've watched Republican candidates sign a pledge “to oppose any and all tax increases.” 

But in opposing the extension of this payroll tax cut, they're suddenly ready to raise taxes on 160 million middle class families. 

Perhaps we shouldn't be surprised that the words “middle class” haven’t been mentioned once in any of the three Republican debates.

When your only priority is protecting special interests, you just don't have time to fight for the rest of us.

This was a doozy of a weekend in the GOP primary. The Republican presidential field added one candidate (much to Mitt Romney’s chagrin), lost another to Tea Party extremism, and continued to attack the President without offering any new ideas of their own.

The big news of the weekend was that Michele Bachmann, Tea Party hero and fictional economic wonk, won the Ames Straw Poll, edging out Ron Paul by a hair.

Rounding out the straw poll was Pawlenty in third, then Santorum, Cain, Perry (as a write in), Romney, Gingrich, Huntsman, and McCotter.

Although Bachmann’s triumph may have been a victory for the Tea Party, it meant bad things for her fellow Minnesotan 2012 contender. Tim Pawlenty announced he was ending his bid for the Republican nomination.

As Pawlenty closed down his campaign, the GOP added another candidate: Texas Governor Rick Perry. We’ll have more on Perry this week. But in the meantime, Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz, enjoying the Iowa festivities over the weekend, visited with MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell to correct Rick Perry’s distortion of his economic record in Texas – he’s “all hat, no cattle”:

Mitt “Corporations are People” Romney couldn’t be more thrilled distraught by this addition to the primary field. Here’s the headline he woke up to Sunday morning from his hometown tabloid:

While the Republicans battled for the soul of the Tea Party and ahead of his three-day jobs and economy bus tour throughout the Midwest, President Obama sympathized with the frustration of people across the country. He called on Congress to put country before party—and to act on behalf of the American people to accelerate job growth and pass stalled legislation:

In a nutshell, that’s your political weekend roundup.

According to the American public, the Republican Party has sunk to a new low.

A new CNN Poll recently released shows that the Tea Party downgrade and GOP manufactured debt-ceiling crisis has led to a whopping 59 percent of Americans to view Republicans unfavorably.

GOP approval rating is lower now than it was when they impeached President Clinton in 1998. 

Today, 59 percent of voters have an unfavorable view of the Republican Party – that number was 57 percent in December 1998 when the Republican House Majority voted to impeach President Clinton.

Back then, voters were so unhappy with Republicans after their hyper-partisan crusade against President Clinton that the GOP lost House seats in the following election and then-Speaker Newt Gingrich was forced to resign.

Brad Woodhouse, DNC Communications Director, circulated a memo that fleshes out the impact of these figures:

The verdict of the public on the GOP’s unpopularity is well founded. By any objective measure, Republicans are seen as responsible for the crisis atmosphere and dysfunction that gripped Washington during the debt ceiling debate. GOP Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell himself bragged about the standoff saying that our nation’s economy was a hostage “worth ransoming” for the GOP to get its way. GOP House Majority Leader Eric Cantor has said that such standoffs over the debt ceiling – a standoff that had the U.S. on the brink of default – would now become the norm if the GOP has its way. GOP presidential candidates eager to appeal to Tea Party partisans either cheered the crisis on or ducked any leadership on the issue at all. 

And, in the announcement of the credit ratings downgrade, S&P’s analysis of the political realities that went into their decision cited “brinkmanship,” political gridlock and a failure to consider revenues that all lay squarely at the feet of the GOP and its intransigence and refusal to compromise.

This poll makes it clear that voters rightly blame Republicans for contributing to the economic crisis and political dysfunction that currently plagues our country. Instead of working with Democrats in good faith to address America’s challenges, Tea Party dominated Republicans are standing in the way.

And the American public knows it.

Click here to read Woodhouse’s full memo.

According to the American public, the Republican Party has sunk to a new low.

A new CNN Poll recently released shows that the Tea Party downgrade and GOP manufactured debt-ceiling crisis has led to a whopping 59 percent of Americans to view Republicans unfavorably.

GOP approval rating is lower now than it was when they impeached President Clinton in 1998. 

Today, 59 percent of voters have an unfavorable view of the Republican Party – that number was 57 percent in December 1998 when the Republican House Majority voted to impeach President Clinton.

Back then, voters were so unhappy with Republicans after their hyper-partisan crusade against President Clinton that the GOP lost House seats in the following election and then-Speaker Newt Gingrich was forced to resign.

Brad Woodhouse, DNC Communications Director, circulated a memo that fleshes out the impact of these figures:

The verdict of the public on the GOP’s unpopularity is well founded. By any objective measure, Republicans are seen as responsible for the crisis atmosphere and dysfunction that gripped Washington during the debt ceiling debate. GOP Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell himself bragged about the standoff saying that our nation’s economy was a hostage “worth ransoming” for the GOP to get its way. GOP House Majority Leader Eric Cantor has said that such standoffs over the debt ceiling – a standoff that had the U.S. on the brink of default – would now become the norm if the GOP has its way. GOP presidential candidates eager to appeal to Tea Party partisans either cheered the crisis on or ducked any leadership on the issue at all. 

And, in the announcement of the credit ratings downgrade, S&P’s analysis of the political realities that went into their decision cited “brinkmanship,” political gridlock and a failure to consider revenues that all lay squarely at the feet of the GOP and its intransigence and refusal to compromise.

This poll makes it clear that voters rightly blame Republicans for contributing to the economic crisis and political dysfunction that currently plagues our country. Instead of working with Democrats in good faith to address America’s challenges, Tea Party dominated Republicans are standing in the way.

And the American public knows it.

Click here to read Woodhouse’s full memo.