Just because Congress passed the payroll tax extension Friday doesn’t end the White House’s obsession with forty dollars.
The House 293-192, followed quickly by the Senate 60-36, passed the bill to keep the Social Security payroll tax at 4.2 percent and to extend unemployment benefits. The Congressional Budget Office scored the cost of the payroll tax cut at $94.5 billion and the unemployment benefits at $309 billion; the CBO said the bill in its totality would increase the deficit by $89.3 billion over the next decade.
Still, President Obama is ready for a victory lap. He’ll also trot out those who submitted comments about what an extra $40 in each paycheck means to them in order to push Congress to tackle more of his agenda.
In the daily president’s schedule, the White House said Obama “will host an event at the White House to discuss the importance of the agreement passed by Congress to extend the payroll tax cut and unemployment insurance and to urge Congress to build on the success of the agreement by taking additional steps to create jobs, grow the economy and help the middle class.”
“The President will be joined by Americans who have shared their stories on WhiteHouse.gov and Twitter about what $40 a paycheck means to them,” the White House said. “Because of this bipartisan action, the typical American family will still see an extra $40 in every paycheck, keeping nearly $1,000 of their hard-earned money this year.”
The bipartisanship only extended so far, with the compromise deal splitting Republican leadership. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) voted for the package, while Minority Whip Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) voted against it.
“With this issue behind us and the Democrats’ latest attempt to raise taxes defeated, it’s important that we look for additional ways to cut spending and work towards comprehensive tax reform that will bring lasting certainty for families and job creators,” Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), who voted for the bill, said after its passage.
Obama will sign the bill later this week.
This evening, though, he’ll sing the blues: B.B. King and Mick Jagger are visiting the White House for a blues music event in recognition of Black History Month.
Living like a true Socialist, from bounced paycheck to bounced paycheck.
Doesn’t have a House budget, can’t balance a checkbook, playing golf and taking vacations. President Backslider with the phony education credentials, the padded resume and the work ethic of the brother-in-law on your basement couch…he takes a victory lap in a burning Volt, powered half by an artificially skyrocketed gas price and a busted green energy company that is out of business.
Marxism at work. Erasing the truth of bad news from the blackboard and having the media dogs tear down anyone who remembers the truth.
Two things that drive me nuts about this payroll tax cut think that never get talked about:
1: This “cut” is essentially plundering social secutiry, instead of the employer sending their portion of the social security tax to the government the employer sends that same money back to the employee. The democrats have two wins here: they get away with robbing from grandpa to pay the grandkids due to no one in the MSM pointing this out (free vote buying); they further destabilize social security, accelerate its collapse and further decouple it from being a system where you pay in for a period of time and then collect later to being just another “giveaway” vehicle (see related stories on SSI disability). Endgame is everyone pays SS tax on all their income (no more cap) and the money continues to be used for whatever vote buying giveaway the Dems want, just another revenue stream (all while shouting “lock box”, repubs want granny to starve, etc.).
2: The Democrats completely get away with (again horray for MSM) talking about what a boon it is to have less money go to the goivernment and how big of a deal it makes economically to have $40 extra in a paycheck. Yet in the very next breath demonize the even more substaintial economic benefit of having an employer or upper middle class individual keep a larger sum than $40 and say actually use it to hire someone….
As is usual the republicans lost the narrative and really screwed this one up. They should have from the very begining fought this raising the “pludering SS” aspect and then counter proposed that if $40 per paycheck was so great lets get that $40 per paycheck by lowering the across the board income tax rates by whatever fraction of a percent was needed to yield that same net to workers…
Woo hoo!! Get to keep that extra forty each week. Yes, that’s really going to help . Back in 2008 when my first child left the nest, my food bills each week dropped down to about $75 a week. 2nd one left in 2010. My grocery bills now average about $125 to feed 3 instead of 5 and that doesn’t take into account how much more I pay for gas at the pump, in my power bills each month, etc. I am fortunate to have a job with a small company that while hurt by the economy, is still doing ok, but I work many more hours now than I did in 2008 and we are not getting ahead, but falling behind as a household. Thank you, Mr. Obama.