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BY CHRISTINA HARTMAN

A Trojan Horse or a battle-weary concession?

Reports suggest Democrats might be willing to drop a tax on millionaires in exchange for an extension of the payroll tax cut set to expire at the end of the year.

Senate Democrats and Republicans have been battling over the 2 percent payroll tax cut for weeks. For the average American paycheck, it’s meant $1,000 bucks kept out of government coffers and left in workers’ pockets. As News12 reports, lawmakers are doing some last-minute compromising.

“It will likely not contain a millionaire's surtax as demanded by Democrats. Some Democrats say dropping it may be the only way to get the payroll tax cut extension passed.”

The payroll tax pays for Social Security -- and the millionaire tax was Democrats’ answer to critics who said extending the tax cut would negatively impact the popular entitlement program. But Republicans called that a no-go. So are the Dems’ really willing to budge in the name of compromise?

On Fox Business -- former Clinton advisor Doug Schoen says -- if they’re not -- they should.

SCHOEN: “I think it’s good politics and good government.”
VARNEY: “The president thought it was good politics. I'm surprised he's retreated. This has been his campaign theme for months, tax the rich, beat up on the millionaires and billionaires.
SCHOEN: “The Republicans basically made it clear there would be gridlock and no extension of the payroll tax cut so without getting rid of the millionaire's tax...”
VARNEY: “Do you read this as an Obama cave?”
SCHOEN: “Yes, it is absolutely an Obama cave...”

But remember -- this isn’t a done deal yet. In fact, MSNBC brought at least three Democrats on air Thursday morning to ask whether it’s gonna happen. All seemed to suggest -- in the name of keeping the payroll tax cut extension -- maybe.

REP. BARBARA LEE (D-CA): “I don't want to give that up. I understand that we have to negotiate something to get this done.”

SEN. KENT CONRAD (D-ND): “We'd prefer not to. … But we are not going to be at the end of a day in a situation in which 160 million people get hit with a tax increase.”

SEN. BEN CARDIN (D-MD): “So, yes, we are willing to sit down and negotiate a fair way to bring this session to a fair conclusion.”

All that “will to sit down and negotiate” talk has Politico’s Jonathan Allen saying lawmakers who’ve been fighting each other all year -- are just plain tired.

“Congressional leaders are sneering at each other across the aisle... But among the rank and file, the mood is different — punch-drunk and ready to throw in the towel. … Lawmakers roundly say that no one is ready to give up on their principles — but they are anxious to get the deals over and done with.”

In a news conference Thursday President Obama said Congress quote “cannot and should not leave for vacation” until the payroll tax cut issue is resolved.