The House was supposed to vote last night on a Senate bill to extend a middle-class payroll tax cut and unemployment insurance benefits, but Speaker John Boehner chickened out at the last minute. Why? Because some Republicans didn’t want to vote against the middle class, but Boehner wanted to make absolutely sure the bill didn’t pass.

In a stunning move, the House Republican leadership postponed a vote planned for late tonight on a two-month extension of the payroll tax holiday and unemployment benefits that passed the Senate with a huge bipartisan majority. Republicans planned to reject the Senate bill today in a gambit to force the upper chamber to come back from recess and pass a longer term extension. But it seemed House Speaker John Boehner’s (R-OH) caucus wasn’t as united as he expected, as there was “a desire among some rank-and-file lawmakers to cast an affirmative vote rather than a negative one” favored by Boehner, Politico reports.

Now, Boehner may resort to procedural tricks to help ensure his desired outcome when the House votes on the package tomorrow. The House will most likely vote on a motion to reject the Senate bill, instead of regular up-or-down vote. That way, Republicans won’t have to outright vote against the payroll tax holiday and Boehner doesn’t risk the measure accidentally passing in case he miscounts his votes. [Think Progress]

Is it just me, or is Boehner going to absurd lengths to screw the middle class? This sort of procedural nonsense is the worst sort of cynicism, and it’s aimed at preventing a tax cut that’s important for the consumers that drive our economy.

The two-month extension of the payroll tax cut that Boehner is blocking isn’t at all ideal; it should be done for a full year. However, it’s the Republicans’ own fault that we have to do it this way. And now they won’t even give the middle class two stinking months.