Newt: let working Americans keep more of their money. Bachmann: no.

An article from IowaPolitics.com goes into the different Republican Presidential candidates' views on extending the payroll tax cut. Hannah Hess writes:

Both Texas U.S. Rep. Ron Paul and former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich agree with the extension, their campaigns confirmed to IowaPolitics.com this week. They support keeping the tax on workers’ wages at a 4.2 percent rate, rather than the normal 6.2 percent rate, as a way to keep more money in the pockets of middle-income Americans.

Mitt Romney and Michelle Bachmann, apparantely, oppose working Americans keeping more of their own money. Rick Perry could not be reached.

With Bachmann, this is nothing news. She wants the "perfect" bill -- though won't do any actual work to improve the bill (hasn't even chaired a subcommittee in almost five years in the House) -- and when it's not there, she stands up and says, "No!"

She can do that because she knows her vote will not be the deciding one on any of these issues. If she was President, I can almost guarantee she would sign the bill -- because she couldn't hide. (It's the same principle that allowed Senator Barack Obama to rail against raising the debt celing only a few years before President Obama said not raising the ceiling would result in doomsday.)

Writes Hess:

Supporting the payroll tax cut extension aligns with the views of conservative leaders in Iowa, including Polk County GOP Chairman Kevin McLaughlin of Des Moines. McLaughlin serves as president and founder of Iowans for Discounted Taxes, a nonprofit that advocates for lower tax rates.

"They can make it permanent as far as I’m concerned," said McLaughlin, who has lobbied for state property and income tax relief. "If you really want to get the economy up and running, you want to discount the income taxes too, so that all the consumers that use those businesses have more to spend."

The Iowa Republican: "Gingrich Puts Presidential Campaign in Motion -- Announces Iowa Team"

Craig Robinson of The Iowa Republican has the scoop on Newt's Iowa campaign staff:

TheIowaRepublican.com has learned that Iowa House Majority Leader, Rep. Linda Upmeyer, has agreed to chair Newt Explore 2012 in Iowa.

...

Upmeyer, who is the state’s first female House Majority Leader, gives Gingrich a high profile endorsement that he can tout around the state.

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Gingrich is also adding two political veterans to his Iowa team. Craig Schoenfeld and Will Rogers will be his Iowa points of contact. Schoenfeld is a long-time veteran of local and statewide Iowa political campaigns. In 2004, he ran the Iowa Victory effort for President Bush, in addition to working on President Bush’s successful caucus effort in 2000.

...

Will Rogers is a Des Moines native, Army veteran, and Drake University alumnus. For the past 15 years, Rogers has been involved in helping elect Republicans in Iowa beginning with Congressman Greg Ganske’s first campaign. He subsequently served as the Executive Director for the Polk County GOP, worked for Congressman Tom Latham’s campaign in 2004, and served as the Co-Chair of the Polk County GOP during the last election.

...

Schoenfeld provides Gingrich with an understanding of how Iowa caucus campaigns operate. Rogers brings a wealth of activists’ contacts with him to the campaign. His extensive work in Polk and Story Counties could pay huge dividends at the Iowa Straw Poll this summer. The two have also worked on the same campaign before. In 2004, they both worked for Ganske’s U.S. Senate campaign against U.S. Senator Tom Harkin.

Last week I linked to a tweet by Kathie Obradovich that Upmeyer would be joining the campaign in some capacity.

Back in March, CNN had this to say about Rogers:

Will Rogers, the former chairman of the Des Moines-area Polk County Republican Party, told CNN that Gingrich is certain to run 'a high level campaign operation here' if he decides to move beyond the exploratory phase.

"My feeling is that he looks like his somebody who is going to run," said Rogers, who has known Gingrich for six years and plans to work for him if he embarks on a full-fledged candidacy. "He is doing the things that people need to do in order to become a frontrunner in the state of Iowa."