ROLL CALL: Payroll Tax Cut Gets No Love.

A giant middle-class tax hike looms at the end of the year, and both parties and the White House — for now — seem content to ignore it.

As the two parties close in on the climax of a decade-long clash over Bush-era tax cuts, neither party has proposed preventing a looming $120 billion yearly payroll tax hike.

Last year, President Barack Obama had Republicans over a barrel, accusing them of wanting to raise taxes on the middle class unless they extended his payroll tax cut — worth 2 percent of a worker’s salary.

The GOP caved on this year’s extension, but there has been nary a peep since from the White House, presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney or Congressional leaders in either party about extending it again. And Senators on today expressed doubt that it would be extended.

The payroll tax cut actually costs the Treasury more than the Bush tax cuts for those making more than $250,000 a year, which have become the subject of the titanic struggle on Capitol Hill. On its own, its expiration will result in one of the largest tax increases in history.

Wait, I thought you didn’t raise taxes in a down economy. I know I heard someone saying that . . . .