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House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) says he was "flabbergasted" when President Barack Obama opened debt talks by offering the same public positions that he campaigned on.

According to details circulated by Republican aides last week, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner's offer included $1.6 trillion in taxes, $400 billion in entitlement spending cuts and $200 billion in new stimulus of payroll tax cuts and efforts to encourage homeowners to refinance. The White House also asked Republicans to raise the debt limit as part of a deal to avoid the so-called fiscal cliff.

"I was just flabbergasted," Boehner told Fox News host Chris Wallace on Sunday. "I looked at him and said, 'You can't be serious.' I've just never seen anything like it."

The Speaker insisted that Obama's first offer was a "non-serious proposal" because it included new stimulus measures.

"They wanted to extend unemployment benefits, they wanted a new stimulus program for infrastructure, they wanted to extend some other tax breaks," the Ohio Republican said. "And all of this new stimulus spending would literally be more than the spending cuts that he was willing to put on the table."

Boehner later added that a "balanced approach" would not include an increase in tax rates for the middle class.

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Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol is warning Republicans to stop blocking an extension of payroll tax cuts because the party is "looking as if they don't care about the middle class."

During a Sunday panel segment on Fox News, Kristol noted that President Barack Obama had embraced an extension of lower payroll tax rates.

"The Republicans are in real risk now of looking like they're defending keeping the current tax rates for the wealthy -- the Bush tax rates for the wealthy -- and right now the official Republican position is let the payroll tax rate go back up by 2 points. That is a 2 percentage point increase on every American, but it's a -- Republicans care about marginal rates -- it's a marginal increase on everyone making less than $100,000 a year."

"At the end of the day, President Obama is selling a very simple message, 'I want to keep taxes low for middle-class Americans,' and Republicans look like -- I'm worried are in the position of looking as if they don't care about the middle class and just want to keep tax rates low for wealthy Americans."

Kristol pointed out the Obama administration was in a "stronger position" when it came to negotiations to avoid the so-called fiscal cliff because "the president is the president."

"I think we've seen in a history of those showdowns, the White House usually wins," the conservative columnist explained. "And the main reason the White House usually wins is there's a unitary executive and the majority party in Congress is in a weaker position."

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Republican presidential candidate said Sunday that his "intent in running for president is to help middle-income Americans," but admitted that he would only give them a $167 tax cut.

Fox News host Chris Wallace asked Romney why his plan didn't cut tax rates for the richest Americans from 35 percent to 15 percent or less like his fellow Republicans wanted to do.

"I would love to see a tax system which brings down rates [for everyone]," Romney explained. "I'll work on a plan of that nature. The plans that I have seen so far that have been put forward of that nature have represented dramatic reductions in tax for the very highest income people."

He added: "And I'm not looking to dramatically reduce taxes for the wealthiest in our society, not that there's anything wrong with being wealthy. I'm pleased to have done very well myself. You understand that, others do. My intent in running for president is to help middle-income Americans."

"Your plan that would eliminate the tax on capital gains and dividends doesn't help [the middle class]," Wallace noted. "A recent study showed that a family making $75,00 a year -- in terms of what they would receive by eliminating capital gains and dividends -- $167, sir."

"Well first of all, $167 is not zero," Romney declared. "And number two, one of the reasons people don't save their money is that they don't see an incentive to do so. ... Look, I recognize it's not a huge tax cut. It is a tax reduction that allows middle-income folks to participate in making a brighter future for themselves and saving."

In October and again in December, the GOP hopeful called a payroll tax cut of $1,000 to $1,500 for middle-class Americans just "a little Band-Aid."

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Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) said Sunday that millionaires and billionaires pay "all the taxes" in the U.S.

The tea party favorite told CNN's Candy Crowley that he was against repealing the Bush-era tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans because the rich are already paying their fair share.

"The top 1 percent, the millionaires in our country, pay on average 29 percent of their income," Paul declared. "The top 50 percent of wage earners pay 96 percent of the income tax. The rich and the middle class are paying their fair share."

"There are anomalies, there are aberrations," he continued. "If you are a millionaire or you are a corporation that's not paying, we're all for eliminating those loopholes and deductions. But on average, the vast majority of millionaires and billionaires are paying all of the taxes. That's who pays the income tax."

The nonpartisan Congressional Research Service recently found that 25 percent of millionaires pay a lower tax rate than 10 million middle-income Americans. The IRS found that in 2009, 1,470 millionaires and billionaires actually paid no taxes at all.

While Paul is working to make sure the richest Americans continue to receive a tax cut, he's against extending unemployment benefits or a 2 percent payroll tax cut for the less wealthy.

"If you want to extend unemployment benefits, they have to be paid for," Paul explained. "So the question is, do we want to borrow money from China to pay people not to work? ... I want to get millions of people back to work and the only thing historically that's ever worked in our country is to lower tax rates on the upper income folks."

"Let me ask you about the payroll tax," Crowley said. "That is Social Security taxes, which were cut by about 2 percent for most people and that will also expire so there is Social Security, their payroll tax will go up. Are you willing to extend that?"

"I have a difficult time with saying it's good thing for Social Security to lower the amount of money coming into it right now because it is a system that's $6 trillion short," Paul replied. "We'll have to cross that bridge when we get there, but I have a tough time with figuring out how that helps Social Security."