Payroll Tax Cut in "Serious Doubt"

I wonder if the puppeteers in the Republican Party regret what they have created now that they have lost control of the strings controling the actions of the groups they needed to win elections:

For Senate Tax Cut Stopgap, Odds in House Are Uncertain, NY Times: ...the Senate voted overwhelmingly on Saturday to extend a payroll tax cut for only two months, with the chamber’s leaders and the White House proclaiming victory, even as they punted into the new year the issue of how to further extend the tax cut and unemployment benefits.

In an unusual Saturday vote, the Senate approved by an 89-to-10 vote a $33 billion package that would extend a payroll-tax holiday for millions of American workers, extend unemployment benefits and avoid cuts in payments to doctors who accept Medicare. ...

But House passage next week was thrown into serious doubt on Saturday afternoon, when a number of rank-and-file Republicans objected in a conference call with Speaker John A. Boehner, who tried to persuade them that it was good for their party, particularly the provision that would speed the decision process for construction of an oil pipeline from Canada to the Gulf Coast known as Keystone XL. ...

Republican leaders — but not necessarily their rank and file — had wanted a full-year payroll tax cut deal to try to inoculate themselves against accusations by Democrats, as they head into an election year, that they are against tax cuts for low- and middle-income workers. It will be up to Mr. Boehner to convince his members that extending the cut —  and at least appearing to work with Democrats even as they labor to unseat Mr. Obama and the Democrats who still control the Senate — will ultimately work in their political favor. ...

Obama and House Republicans seem to be in some kind of contest to see who can give the biggest political gift to the other side.