Bill Clinton on the Payroll Tax Holiday - "the best thing you can do"

[denem]

Every single unbiased economic study says the best thing you can do, if you're going to take the tax cut path to grow the economy is to give (it in) payroll taxes.

I just got back from a trip to Asia with my foundation. Hong Kong, super free market place, had a stimulus. Well, I guess we're not supposed to use that word anymore. You know what they did? They gave almost 10 percent of the people low-income working people, two months free rent and public housing. They gave some money to the seniors. Most important thing they did was payroll tax relief for a year.

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1012/10/cnr.08.html

[Democrats_win]

1. From the man who helped eliminate Glass-Steagall.

Today, Bill Clinton is doing a heck of a job.

[denem]

2. Because he was wrong in 1999 he must not have a clue in 2010?

Yeah, whatever.

Hong Kong is run by clueless idiots.

[valerief]

5. +666 trillion

[denem]

7. WJC Worst.President.Ever.

until the next one
and let me guess 666 trillion times
the next one after that.

[valerief]

14. Huh? Eliminating Glass-Steagall was a very bad thing. You think it was a good thing?

The Financial Services Modernization Act of 1999 and Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000 (Enron loophole). Very, very bad.

I could give a rat's ass about sex in the Oval Office BTW.

[Recursion]

23. The elimination of Glass-Steagall saved our asses in 2008

None of the investment banks that drove themselves into the ground were covered by Glass-Steagall. The retail banks were, and because G-S had been repealed a decade earlier, they were able to step in, buy the investment banks, and stabilize the situation. If Glass-Steagall had still been in effect, Bank of America could not have bought Merrill-Linch, and we would have to have done an AIG on them.

[valerief]

24. Ah, would we have had the crisis in the first place if investment banks were kept separate? nt

[Recursion]

25. Yes. They were separate when it happened

So, no "if" is involved. None of the investment banks were owned by retail banks, pre-crisis.

[valerief]

26. So the investment banks couldn't gamble with retail bank money?nt

[Recursion]

28. They weren't owned by retail banks

So they had no retail bank money to gamble with. I suppose the repeal of Glass-Stegall also would have let Bear Sterns start taking retail deposits, but they had no incentive to do so and never did. The retail banks could have operated proprietary trading desks (most did, in fact, at a small level) but the overall bank is still regulated by the FDIC (as, incidentally, Merrill Lynch now is once BoA bought it).

The investment banks that imploded were not the ones who were covered under Glass-Steagall before its repeal. The retail banks' ability to step in and buy the investment banks (which kept us from having to bail out every single investment bank) was only possible because Glass-Stegall was repealed.

[Beacool]

22. I beg to differ.

President Clinton was the best president in my lifetime. Pity the left hates him so much, even more so than the right at this point in time.

:(

[AndyTiedye]

3. Lower the Payroll Tax and Raise the Cap as the Economy Improves

The payroll tax is the most regressive tax the Federal government levies.

It is important to fund Social Security, but it is not inherently necessary
that it be funded by a tax that hits low-income workers so much harder than
those who make more.

[thelordofhell]

16. This is exactly what will happen

I've been telling everybody on DU that Obama will propose an increased cap from 109,000 to 250,000 or 1 million to shore up SS, but all they want to talk about is how SS is doomed by a one time temporary reduction of the payroll tax.

[dflprincess]

19. You really think that reduction is "temporary"?

Try raising it in an election year. By dropping the Making Work Pay Credit and lowering FICA 2% Obama actually raised the taxes of single people making less that $20,000/year - and couples making less than $40,000 (if they have no other deductions).

Most importantly, by making SS rely on general revenue for funding it has been made part of the deficit problem and don't kid yourself that it won't be on the chopping block when we ("we" being the working & middle classes) have to make sacrifices.

BTW, I haven't heard Obama claim he wants to raise the income cap since he was a candidate.

[thelordofhell]

20. Yes.

Next!!

:kick:

[valerief]

27. Well, if Bernie Sanders tells us precedent is an issue, then I believe him. nt

[ladjf]

4. The best thing America can do is to stop listening to Clinton. He has

clearly shown where his priorities lie.

[pscot]

6. Awe, c'mon

B.C. would be heartbroken if Obama failed.

[ladjf]

8. Count me as a very disillusioned former fan of Bill Clinton.

His actions have clearly turned me off. He is as self-centered as a person could possibly be. And, the Lewinsky thing was dumb beyond all belief.

[pscot]

17. +1

[niceypoo]

9. "if you're going to take the tax cut path to grow the economy"

AKA if you are a republican

[denem]

10. That's why I put it on bold.

Spending is the way to go IMO

[RC]

11. And the way to spending is to have LIVING WAGE JOBS for the real middle class.

Any this short of getting our Living Wage Jobs back into this country is a sham. Nothing else will work in the long run.

[JoePhilly]

12. Raise the FLOOR and the CAP.

Why not give people a break on their FIRST 20k of income or so, then raise the CAP by that much, or (obviously) more (even over time if not immediately).

Every one gets the same break.

[flpoljunkie]

13. Sounds like a great idea, except I would lift the cap altogether just like Medicare tax.

[JoePhilly]

15. Understand ...

I think if you raised the floor in my model ... those not effected by the cap get an immediate benefit. All of them.

Raising the CAP gets (politically) more complicated for sure. On principle, I think we need to remove it altogether.

But, there is a group in the 100k to 500k or so income that are not "old money", they are not wealthy ... the old money folks don't care at all, but those who grew up poor or lower middle class ended up with HUGE loans for college and now have higher saleries need some time.

I used to be one of them.

I was a poor kid, did great in school, and then had to take huge loans to go to college. Which put me in a HUGE hole. It took me more than a decade to pay that off. And then I started to save some money so I can send my kids to college with no debt. That is all I really want to do. And I've reached a point where if the CAP disappeared, I should be fine. So, on one level sure, remove it.

But ... I want EVERY kid to be able to do what I did and NOT have all that debt to pay off. And then have to repeat the process with their kids,. And there are still lots of families who are trying to navigate that space.

So, while it would not hurt me to remove the cap in one step, I think there are some who need it to be somewhat "gradual", so they can get their kids set, and over time (less than 10 years), make it go away.

[Juche]

18. He'd make a good president right now

I think he once said his administration never had any true crisis, so he could never be a great president. Then you had 9/11, the breakdown of trust in government, the economic crisis, etc.

Clinton seems like he really wants to have a constructive role in fighting this economic crisis. I'm not badmouthing Obama (the job hemorraging stopped under his administration), but I think Clinton would be more hands on as a president when it comes to recovering the economy.

[Warren Stupidity]

21. Clinton is emblematic of the problem with this party.

How exactly is this payroll tax cut not going to be as permanent as the ruinous Obama-Bush Tax Cuts? How is that not going to defund social security? How is this not going to play right into the hands of the 'drown the baby' club?