House Republicans Don’t Want To Raid Social Security/Medicare For A Temporary Tax Holiday
House Republicans aren’t going along with the Senate’s two-month extension of President Obama’s payroll tax holiday, and now they’re being ripped by Democrats and Republicans like Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown for callously delaying tax relief for the middle class just before Christmas, etc., etc.
“The House Republicans’ plan to scuttle the deal to help middle-class families is irresponsible and wrong,” Brown said in a statement released yesterday.
Well there’s good reason not to pass this payroll tax holiday. The revenues from the payroll tax go into the Social Security and Medicare programs, two entitlement behemoths that are already operating in the red. Passing this tax holiday now, without any meaningful spending cuts to offset it, will only hasten the collapse of those programs and/or require big tax hikes layer to make up the revenues.
President Obama and those siding with him on this issue want to go home for Christmas having to given the nation a present put on the national credit card. House Republicans, rightly, are pointing out that the present has to be paid for up front.
Really, I’m shocked that this is the issue Republicans and Democrats have chosen to go to war over. Congress, under Democrat leadership, hasn’t passed a budget in nearly 1,000 days. we’ve run an annual budget deficit over $1 trillion for three consecutive fiscal years, but rather than deficit reduction they’re fighting to institute a payroll tax at the expense of our two largest entitlement programs?
If there were any sign that Congress and the President are not serious about fixing what truly ails the nation, then surely this is it.
Tags: defcitis, john boehner, medicare, national debt, payroll taxes, social security
