House Republicans Consider Extending Payroll-Tax Cut Alone WASHINGTON - Congressional Republicans said Monday that they would back down from their demands that a payroll tax holiday be paid for with spending reductions on other programs, instead offering to extend the tax cut while continuing to haggle over the extension of unemployment insurance and a measure to prevent doctors from losing money on the Medicare program. That decision, announced by House Republican leaders, is a turnabout from a week ago, when Republicans insisted they would not extend any of the benefits without paying for them. But bruised by their battle over the issue late last year, and longing to blunt a Democratic accusation that they do not support tax cuts for middle-class Americans, the top three Republicans announced that they would ready legislation to extend a two-percentage-point tax cut through the rest of the year. This would remove the payroll tax fight from the plates of the members of a House-Senate conference committee charged with working out a deal, leaving them to focus on the unemployment insurance extensions and the so-called doc fix, which prevents Medicare fees from plummeting for doctors. The payroll tax holiday and jobless benefits expire at month's end, when doctors would face a 27-percent reduction in Medicare reimbursements unless Congress acts. The three leading Republicans in the House - Speaker John A. Boehner of Ohio; Representative Eric Cantor of Virginia, the majority leader; and Representative Kevin McCarthy of California, the whip - issued a statement on the decision. "Because the president and Senate Democratic leaders have not allowed their conferees to support a responsible bipartisan agreement, today House Republicans will introduce a backup plan that would simply extend the payroll tax holiday for the remainder of the year while the conference negotiations continue regarding offsets, unemployment insurance, and the "doc fix." If Democrats continue to refuse to negotiate in good faith, Republicans may schedule this measure for House consideration later this week pending a conversation with our members.  Democrats, who are also eager to see an extension of unemployment pay, were reluctant to embrace the idea of resolving the payroll tax fight separately. Representative Chris Van Hollen, Democrat of Maryland and one of the negotiators, said Monday that the payroll tax extension should "travel together" with an extension of unemployment benefits and Medicare payment legislation. If the payroll tax cut is extended alone, he said, millions of seniors could be left in the lurch as their doctors move to refuse to see Medicare patients. Even as some Republicans members of the committee insisted last week that they were willing to let the tax break expire - something many in the party have advocated all along - the idea of an unpaid-for payroll extension had been discussed as an option for about a week among House Republican leadership members and their staff. The chairman of the negotiating committee, Representative Dave Camp of Michigan, Mr. Boehner and other leaders made the decision to announce the legislation on Monday, the same day President Obama revealed his budget. In a statement Monday, Mr. Camp said: " "I have spoken with my fellow House Republican conferees, and we are committed to resolving the differences between the House and Senate. While we will continue our negotiations in good faith and remain hopeful that a deal will come together, we also recognize that the clock is ticking. As such, I fully support and think it is prudent for our leadership to take whatever action is necessary to ensure American workers are not hit with a tax increase on March 1.