Once again President Barack Obama called on Congress to pass an extension of the payroll tax cut or stay in session until they did.
During his weekly radio address on Saturday, the president said both parties have come together to pass the tax cut before and they should do so again before the rates increased at the beginning of the year.
“Both parties came together to cut payroll taxes for the typical middle-class family by about $1,000, but that tax cut is set to expire at the end of the month,” President Obama said. “We can’t let that happen.”
President Obama has called for not only an extension of the payroll tax cut but also an expansion that would decrease the rate by going from 6.2 percent this year to 3.1 percent next year. That would give, on average, each middle-class family $1,500 extra next year. That in turn would help the economy by giving families a little extra spending money.
The increased pressure President Obama has been giving not only stems from the fact that failing to pass the tax cut would be harmful to the economy and the middle class but also because Congress seems at a standstill with getting it done.
The Senate voted on two payroll tax cut measures late last week but both failed. The Democratic version followed President Obama’s proposal and was paid for by putting a surtax on those making more than $1 million a year. The Republican version kept the rate at 6.2 percent and was paid for by having a three year pay freeze for federal workers and cutting roughly 200,000 federal jobs – it also called on more cuts to discretionary spending.
Republicans in the House of Representatives also have expressed opposition to the tax cut. The GOP conference is split on the issue with several members expressing doubt the payroll tax cut actually helps the economy, not wanting to pass an extension without drastic spending cuts or wanting to have policy riders attached to it.
Still, the president said he would keep prodding Congress until it got done and called out Republicans for once again hindering efforts to help the economy and create jobs.
“We’re going to keep pushing Congress to make this happen,” he said. “They shouldn’t go home for the holidays until they get this done. Unfortunately, too many Republicans in Congress don’t seem to share that same sense of urgency. Over the last few months, they’ve said ‘no’ to most of these jobs bills.
“‘No’ to putting teachers and firefighters back to work. ‘No’ to putting construction workers back on the job. And this week, they actually said ‘no’ to cutting taxes for middle-class families.”
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