By: Guest ContributorDec. 20th, 2011more from Guest Contributor

House Democrats are giving Republicans a taste of the political price for not extending the payroll tax by targeting them with a petition accusing the tea party of mugging the middle class.

The DCCC petition states,

Something remarkable happened this weekend — Democrats and Senate Republicans worked together to stop a $1,000 payroll tax hike on 160 million middle class families.

Sounds too good to be true? It is, if House Tea Party Republicans don’t do the right thing and support it.

Thirty-nine Republicans in the Senate voted for a middle class tax cut compromise, but Tea Party Republicans are ready to scrap the bill and sock the middle class with a $1,000 tax hike on January 1st. That will cost Americans money when they can least afford it.

The Tea Party is mugging the middle class with a tax increase because they don’t think millionaires and corporations should pay their fair share.

The tea party caucus in the House is playing its usual game. They have used this tactic over and over again. They prey on the conscience of responsible members of Congress who don’t want to see people lose their unemployment benefits, or the nation go into default to get their own way.

Their hostage taking strategy has been successful for them every time, so why wouldn’t they try it again?

There is only one problem. This time the Senate anticipated the tea partiers tactics and beat them to the punch. Mitch McConnell may be saying all the right things in the press right now, but his actions speak louder than his words. After the two month extension passed, Minority Leader McConnell did not object when Majority Leader Reid recessed the Senate for the year. The message was clear. McConnell felt that the Senate did their job.

There are four layers of political intrigue simultaneously occurring right now. This isn’t only about Democrats versus Republicans in the House. The yearlong frustrations between the House and Senate have finally boiled, over making this also about House versus Senate. There is also House Republicans versus Senate Republicans, and most importantly, House Republican versus House Republican.

Due to the straight majority rules in the House, there is nothing that House Democrats can procedurally do about the Republican led implosion of the payroll tax cut extension. What they can do is make sure that Boehner’s latest cave to the tea party carries a heavy political price.

That’s where you come in. By signing this petition and calling House Republicans, you can let them know that you are watching and you make sure that you, your friends, your neighbors, and your family will be voting for their opponents in 2012.

Call the House Republicans at (202) 224-3121 and make it clear that their days in power are numbered if they let the payroll tax cut and unemployment benefits extensions expire. America has had enough of the tea party shakedown.

House Republicans are using “process” to hide the fact that they don’t want to pass a clean payroll tax extension. They don’t want a clean two month bill, or a clean one year bill. Their strategy is to extort as much as they can from the unemployed and middle class.

Tell them the game is over by signing the petition today.