'Payroll Tax Holiday' came into Obama's Tax Plan via Republicans

[avaistheone1]

I've written that the use of a payroll tax holiday plays perfectly into the hands of the Grover Norquist/Tea Party plans to destroy the viability of of Social Security. Jennifer Rubin reminds us that it was their proposal in 2009 and was rejected.

You may recall that a payroll tax break or "holiday" was a Republican proposal back in 2009. Conservatives liked the idea then in lieu of a tax credit. The Weekly Standard's Matt Continetti explained the reasoning...
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/017/086xkijy.asp

Today, President Summers also held a conference call and admitted that Republicans introduced the payroll tax holiday into President Obama's Tax Cut deal:


Digby writes:
Dear God. Some of these people must be either criminally inept or crudely malevolent. There is no other choice: http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2010/12/9/927144/-Summers:-Payroll-tax-holiday-was-GOPs-preference-for-tax-stimulus

Q So the only reason that the payroll tax holiday will provide more stimulus is because it’s twice as large. Making Work Pay was capped. Why didn’t you preserve Making Work Pay? Is it because, as the President said some months ago, it’s just a kind of invisible tax cut and didn’t provide any political benefit for the White House?

MR. SUMMERS: No, it came out of the process of compromise with the Republicans who were more attracted to the payroll tax holiday concept, and that was a proposal that, as had been coming out of here, we had been giving considerable thought to in the context of the President’s budget.

I find it hard to believe that such smart people didn't know that this was a landmine. If stupid hippie bloggers understand that it's going to be nearly impossible to reinstate that tax, then surely world class intellectuals and political professionals do. They had to know that this was going to weaken Social Security and one can only assume at this point that they did it in service of their stated goal of "saving it" by cutting it --- and being rewarded as big heroes by the people (and Wall Street.)

Somehow, I don't think their clever plan is going to go the way they think it will.

http://crooksandliars.com/john-amato/payroll-tax-holiday-came-obamas-tax-pla

[WCGreen]

1. So if this was a republican idea, what exactly did the White House add to the mix..

[Faryn Balyncd]

12. Gibbs had the chutzpah to circulate a chart showing it as "SOMETHING WE GOT" when it was ....

.....the plan the avowed ENEMIES of Social Security have been peddling for YEARS.


This is a TRAP into which the administration knowingly walked.


The chart that Gibbs deceptively displayed clearly shows that if the SS-killing "Payroll Tax Holiday", (the sngle LARGEST ITEM in the bill), were to be correctly placed into the column of the Republicans who have been peddling it for years, that there is no semblance of balance:



http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=433&topic_id=556710&mesg_id=556710

[glitch]

13. Oops, probably wasn't supposed to let that out to the public.

Identity confusion for the post-partisan.

[dkf]

2. If we can't reinstate taxes we are doomed anyway.

Doesn't matter if it's the payroll tax or the middle class tax or the tax credits or the upper tax cuts. We need all of these and with our spending increases probably more.

[ProSense]

3. How did it get into

Robert Reich's post here:

<...>

The solution is to reorganize the economy so the benefits of growth are more widely shared. Exempt the first $20,000 of income from payroll taxes, and apply payroll taxes to incomes over $250,000. Extend Medicare to all. Extend the Earned Income Tax Credit all the way up through families earning $50,000. Make higher education free to families that now can’t afford it. Rehire teachers. Repair and rebuild our infrastructure. Create a new WPA to put the unemployed back to work.

<...>

Reich in July:

<...>

The 1.5 dip recession should cause the President to demand a large-scale national jobs program including a new WPA that gets millions of Americans back to work even if government has to pay their wages directly. Included would be zero-interest loans to strapped states and locales, so they didn’t have to cut vital services and raise taxes. They could repay when the economy picked up and revenues came in. The national jobs program would also include a one-year payroll tax holiday on the first $20,000 of income.

<...>

Congressional Black Caucus opposes Obama on tax-cut package

<...>

In outlining the CBC's objections to the package, Lee said that the "vast majority" of CBC members are opposed to the estate tax provision and the extension of the tax cuts for the wealthy and are worried that the spending cuts that could follow the package might hit the poor especially hard.

"We understand that there are tough choices that will need to be made next year and we are extremely concerned that the cuts that could be made should this package pass would disproportionately hurt the poor and low-income communities and further erode the safety net," Lee said.

The CBC's counter-proposal showed few signs of members giving up ground. The proposal includes a two-year extension of the Bush-era tax cuts for the middle class -- which was part of the tax-cut measure that the House passed this month -- as well as a payroll tax holiday and a 13-month extension of unemployment insurance benefits. All three components are priorities for congressional Democrats.

CBC members said that their plan would cost less than half of what the plan negotiated by Obama and Republicans would cost and create about the same number of jobs.

<...>

[FrenchieCat]

5. So the CBC is also suggesting a Payroll tax holiday for employees?

The CBC's counter-proposal showed few signs of members giving up ground. The proposal includes a two-year extension of the Bush-era tax cuts for the middle class -- which was part of the tax-cut measure that the House passed this month -- as well as a payroll tax holiday and a 13-month extension of unemployment insurance benefits. All three components are priorities for congressional Democrats.



THAT MEANS WE ARE DOOMED!


Run for the hills!

[ProSense]

4. Here's the difference:

The point at the link in the OP isn't the same as any Democrat is proposing. The Weekly Standard piece is proposing cutting the payroll tax without replacing the lost revenue.

Democrats have proposed using general funds to replace the revenue and, in Reich's case, raising the payroll tax threshold, something the President has also proposed, via Senator Sanders.

<...>

“If we are serious about making Social Security strong and solvent for the next 75 years, President Obama has the right solution. On October 14, 2010, he restated a long-held position that the cap on income subject to Social Security payroll taxes, now at $106,800, should be raised. As the president has long stated, it is absurd that billionaires pay the same amount into the system as someone who earns $106,800.

<...>

[FrenchieCat]

6. Wasn't the Republican proposal also including employees......?

Which the President doesn't?

[Laelth]

7. I want to keep general revenues and the SS trust fund separate.

I don't want to give these politicians any excuse to "trim" SS "expenditures."

The "payroll tax holiday" was, is, and always will be a Republican idea. I am ashamed that a Democratic President is pushing for it.

-Laelth

[avaistheone1]

8. The PAYROLL tax increase on income over $250K is the only way the payroll tax holiday aspect

of the bill would be palatable.

I strongly agree with DU poster ljm2002 that general funds should NOT be used to pay into the Social Security trust fund.

"That is PRECISELY why it is a dangerous and insidious policy. Social Security is self-funding and always has been. It has NEVER contributed to the deficit. So what will happen? 1 - next year, Republicans can say, correctly, that Social Security contributed to the deficit; 2 - next year Republicans will try to block reinstatement of the payroll tax, calling it a tax hike; 3 - this will be used to further weaken the program by pointing out that it will continue to add to the deficit."

[ProSense]

9. Sorry, I don't agree.

The arguments against this seems to be that it will become permanent. It's temporary for one year only. A new bill would be required to extend this. The fact that it expires a year earlier than the other tax cuts means that this is unlikely to happen.

[sasha031]

10. repugs have been talking about doing this for yrs, it wasn't a secret

the only thing I can suggest is call your Congressman and Senators.

[glitch]

14. Not the moderate repugs either, the more extreme ones.

What a proud moment.

[Faryn Balyncd]

11. The truth begins to emerge.

:kick:





KNR

[Phx_Dem]

15. That's a lie, and it just shows that the rightwing knows they've been screwed

so they're trying to claim some of the cuts are their idea. This is standard GOP strategy. If it's a winner, claim it as your own.

And, not surpringly, the progressives are going right along with them.

[Hello_Kitty]

16. You're ignoring a direct quote from Larry Summers about it. eom