Tag: payroll tax cuts

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Politics weekly address

President Obama Reminds Us – No Action In Congress Could Raise Your Taxes This Month

President Obama used his weekly Presidential address to call on Congress to “do the right thing” on the expiring Payroll Tax issue. The tax extension recently agreed to is set to expire at the end of February.

… at the end of the month, taxes are set to go up on 160 million working Americans. If you’re one of them, then you know better than anyone that the last thing you need right now is a tax hike.  But if Congress refuses to act, middle class taxes will go up.  It’s that simple.

Echoing recent appeals to the public, the President called on Americans to pick up the phone and call their congressperson and demand that they extend the Payroll Tax Cuts.

 I hope you’ll pick up the phone, send a tweet, write an email, and tell your representative that they should get this done before it gets too late.  Tell them not to play politics again by linking this debate to unrelated issues. Tell them not to manufacture another needless standoff or crisis.  Tell them not to stand in the way of the recovery.  Tell them to just do their job.  That’s what our middle class needs.  That’s what our country needs.

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Barack Obama Politics Republican Senate United States

Boehner Surrenders – Bad Politics Caused House Republicans To Cave On Payroll Tax Cuts

Chalk this one up as a win for the hard-working middle class families. Earlier today, John Boehner, under excruciating pressure from members of his own party, caved and agreed to the payroll tax cut bill the Senate passed last week – a move that would save  American families $1000.00 a year.

It was the kind of pressure that could make one appear red in the face!

Under a deal reached between House and Senate leaders — which Speaker John A. Boehner was presenting to the rank and file in an evening conference call — House members would accept the two-month extension of a payroll tax holiday and unemployment benefits approved by the Senate last Saturday, while the Senate would appoint members of a House-Senate conference committee to negotiate legislation to extend both benefits through 2012.

House Republicans — who rejected an almost identical deal on Tuesday on the House floor — caved in under the political rubble that accumulated over the week, much of it from members of their own party, who worried the blockade would do serious damage to the party brand heading into an election year. The new deal makes minor adjustments to make it easier for small businesses with temporary new caps on the wages that are subject to the tax relief.

On news of Boehner’s reversal, President Obama issued a statement, saying “Because of this agreement, every working American will keep his or her tax cut – about $1,000 for the average family. That’s about $40 in every paycheck. And when Congress returns, I urge them to keep working to reach an agreement that will extend this tax cut and unemployment insurance for all of 2012 without drama or delay.”

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Barack Obama democrats Politics

President And Democrats Give Up The Call For Millionaire Tax Hike

Here we go again. In another effort to negotiate in good faith with Republicans and get some agreement on extending the payroll tax break, CNN is reporting that President Obama and the Democrats will drop the millionaire surtax the President has called for over the last few months.

In what would be a major concession, President Obama and Senate Democrats will drop their insistence that a surtax on millionaires pay for extending the payroll tax cut, a Democratic source tells CNN. This would be part of a new Democratic offer.

The move comes after Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and other top Senate Democrats met with President Obama at the White House earlier today.

Based on this President’s past, one would assume that Republicans should chalk this one up as another win. But I will caution my fellow Americans. Until we get a full understanding of what they agreed upon, let’s not pass judgement on this administration just yet.

I remember other situations where we thought the president had given up too much. And although there may have been times when we wished he had held out a little longer and stood his grounds against these Republicans, we must admit that when we looked at the overall picture, the president, most of the time,  seemed to come out on top. Thus, we hear all the time, “while everyone played checkers, the president was playing chess.”

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