Trump demands payroll tax cut while GOP eyes benefit cuts for unemployed
Source: Washington Post
President Trump sought to draw a hard line on the coronavirus relief bill Sunday, saying it must include a payroll tax cut and liability protections for businesses, as lawmakers prepare to plunge into negotiations over unemployment benefits and other key provisions in coming days.
I would consider not signing it if we dont have a payroll tax cut, Trump said in an interview on Fox News Sunday. Democrats strongly oppose a payroll tax cut, and some Republicans have been cool to it, but Trump said a lot of Republicans like it.
...snip...
Trumps comments come as Senate Republicans are exploring new limits on emergency unemployment benefits for people who were high earners before losing their jobs, according to two people who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss details of internal planning.
If the White House and Senate GOP priorities make it into the bill, the legislation would effectively cut taxes for people who have jobs while cutting benefits for the unemployed.
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/07/19/republican-stimulus-unemployment-coronavirus/
Iliyah
(25,111 posts)What say you republican seniors . . . .
What say you republicans that are disabled . ..
Democrats want to preserve the programs.
customerserviceguy
(25,183 posts)signed payroll tax cut legislation, and the sky didn't fall.
I'm retired, and in my view, the biggest threat to Social Security and Medicare is rampant unemployment. We need to have people drawing payrolls to tax to keep those programs functioning.
Hoyt
(54,770 posts)otherwise good relief Bill just to deny trump some small victory.
Democrats have a lot of work to do on Social Security in the next few years, or the bottom will drop out by 2030, or sooner if unemployment stays high.
customerserviceguy
(25,183 posts)When the Social Security Trustees make their next report on how long the system will be solvent, I fear it is going to be quite shocking, even if the economy does rebound after a Biden victory.
cstanleytech
(26,080 posts)I do not think it is.
No, I think its wiser to hold off and not pass this for now because the Republicans are the ones that caused this mess in the first place so they are the ones that should be made to take the first bite out of this fresh shit pie they baked.
After the election we simply then can take a page out of the Republicans own playbook and ram through a number of things to help the economy recover quicker such as a massive infrastructure bill carefully crafted so as to get people back to work.
regnaD kciN
(26,035 posts)...will provide only temporary relief, while creating permanent problems.
blueinredohio
(6,797 posts)There was a little more money in the paycheck but the tax rate didn't change so we ended up paying in a lot more than usual and had to raise our withholding so maybe next year it won't as bad. This is not in our favor.
Igel
(35,191 posts)I don't remember one and none turns up in searches before 12/31/19 going back to mid-2017.
Demands and requests for a payroll tax cut, but nothing from Congress.
Remember: Federal income tax is on net earned income, but the bottom 40% (last year and in previous years) pay pretty much no federal income tax. Payroll tax is FICA, Medicare.
A payroll tax cut that reduces FICA taxes would have no benefit for a lot of employees. In TX, for instance, most teachers pay into Social Security. When I was a grad student at UCLA we had our state DCP.
I think one sticking point will be SALT.
blueinredohio
(6,797 posts)but it was when they messed with taxes. It had to be in 2016 or17 because I wasn't getting social security yet. I had to have taxes taken out of my s.s. and raise the withholding on my pension.
droidamus2
(1,698 posts)All they have to do is remove the payroll limit $137700 for social security and medicare and there would be no problem. As a matter of fact you could probably raise the benefits. I would also throw in some added tax that keeps the higher earners from converting pay that would be taxed for social security to stocks and such. Tax the value of all 'pay' not just the paycheck.
usaf-vet
(6,094 posts)Which means you would pay SS tax on every dollar you earned up to $400,000.
Which means new Congress members who earn $170,000 approximately. ONLY PAYS TAXES on the first $137,700 dollars.
He or she's would not have to pay the SS tax on $170,000 minus $137,700 or $32,300 not one red cent on $32,300 of income.
But if you were a teacher a firefighter, a nurse in an ICU, an EMT picking up Covid-19 patients and you were earning $32,300 a year YOU WOULD PAY SS TAX ON EVERY PENNY OF the $32,300.
WANT TO FIX Social Security? Raise the limit to MILLIONS if it would save SS forever.
Bengus81
(6,907 posts)If he's still making $30M per year he's all but done paying in to SS by noon on Jan 2nd. He skates like other rich fat cats for the other 363 days. Meanwhile most of the rest pay and pay and pay all year.
Hell I was self employed for 41 years, I paid TWICE as much seeing how no one was matching the other side. When the HELL did those cut off amounts get installed into SS?? I've never looked it up to see.
droidamus2
(1,698 posts)FDR's original plan didn't have the wealthy pay in but they would not collect any benefits either. As the legislation made its way through Congress the salary cap was inserted instead. I think the cap is tied to inflation so it does go up a little every year. Personally I don't think there should be a limit on the tax but obviously the wealthy should be capped on how much benefit they can get.
customerserviceguy
(25,183 posts)will be an important part of a long-term fix for Social Security and Medicare, I don't expect it to be used in the next stimulus bill. A short reduction in FICA and Medicare taxes on both employers and employees is not anything to hold up a stimulus bill over. We'll be far better off with a solid recovery and more payroll available to tax.
MRDAWG
(501 posts)shortages from the payroll tax. No loss of revenue for SS & Medicare trust funds.
LastLiberal in PalmSprings
(12,538 posts)Being able to eliminate unemployment benefits in the middle of a pandemic is just icing on the cake.
Tney've just been waiting to get a sociopath like Trump in office -- someone who will separate children and infants from their parents, and put them into cages; someone who will argue about giving aid to U.S. citizens in Puerto Rico, and the demand effusive praise for throwing paper towels over their heads like feeding pigs; someone who wants to start building nuclear weapons, despite the global Comprehensive Test Band Treaty; someone who has the WH press corps so cowed they won't even ask questions about Putin putting a bounty on U.S. soldiers' heads; someone who has washed his hands of dealing with the pandemic by gutting the function of the CDC and pulling out of HOPE; someone who accepts the word of a murderous dictator over the unified evaluation of his entire intelligence community; someone who placed a man with the least judicial temperament on the SCOTUS; someone who has made "grift" a common word and the concept of Rule of Law a joke; and a person who who presents a situation where we even have to wonder if he'll leave office if he loses the election.
And don't forget the 20,000 lies, which no reporter or congressman will challenge him on face-to-face.
Yes, the GOP has got the person who gives them everything they want. The entire party should be eliminated over the next few elections, and all of Trump's hand-picked flunkies should be kicked out the door, starting with Ivanka and Jared's pretty little asses.
sandensea
(21,528 posts)"Trump won't touch benefits for us real Americans!"
DENVERPOPS
(8,677 posts)These Pathetic Red Neck Bubba's may get their wish!!!!!!!! LOL
All of them best enroll in a Russian Language class.......
customerserviceguy
(25,183 posts)He'll sign anything that Congress can get to his desk. But, I have severe doubts about Congress being able to do just that.
louis-t
(23,199 posts)He won't actually read it. Problem solved.
bucolic_frolic
(42,664 posts)Is Trump trying to grind the economy to a halt?
People with jobs won't spend more, or not much. Not in COVID World.
The unemployed will consume less.
This bill as the GOP is formulating it is a Depression Maker.
cstanleytech
(26,080 posts)over one that thinks a payroll tax cut is a good idea as all it actually does is hurt social security even more.
Thekaspervote
(32,606 posts)yaesu
(8,020 posts)for the remainder of the year, money for the post office and whatever else they need. Never low-ball at the beginning.
Wuddles440
(1,098 posts)have exploited this crisis (no surprise) to their advantage (as usual) and will attempt to continue their looting with any pending stimulus package. They have been on a decades long march to destroy the Social Security and Medicare programs and attacking the payroll tax revenue is one of their prime objectives, along with refusing to lift the earning cap. Thanks to a criminal lack of overnsight in the previous stimulus measures the extent of known corruption and potential fraud is already epic, and I shudder to think what they actually have planned for us now. Bottom line - never, EVER trust a republican. Their only concern in how to enrich themselves and other members of their plutocracy.
Brainfodder
(6,423 posts)Kept it clean, for once.
Stay furious my friends!
Botany
(70,291 posts)Trump is working 24/7 trying to destroy America because that is what his
boss, Vlad Daddy, wants.
Bengus81
(6,907 posts)gab13by13
(20,864 posts)Payroll tax deductions do nothing for retired people, oh wait, we did get a raise this year, was it 1.6%, I forget.
gab13by13
(20,864 posts)The debt doesn't matter anymore especially when the money goes to the rich. If Trump really wants to help workers just freaking give them the money like he did for the rich. Trump's deficit is over 1.1 trillion dollars now.
onecent
(6,096 posts)rump demands payroll tax cut while GOP eyes benefit cuts for unemployed. WHAT IS WRONG WITH HIM.
He's got all the money...and that is just the way it's going to EVER be.!!