Thankfully, once Congress realized that it was political suicide to do so, it extended the existing payroll tax cut for a measly two months. I hope they don’t break their arms patting themselves on the back.
Forgive my sarcasm, but there are a lot of people in these rough times who probably need to maintain this tax cut.
I understand that our government is hurting financially, but this is a real chicken-and-egg scenario.
If the government collects taxes, it’ll help pay for existing debts and existing programs while creating nothing.
However, if the people get to keep the tax cut, that money will move into the economy, to restaurants, stores and service providers. It can actually create jobs, which would create taxpayers, and cut unemployment.
Is it so much to ask that these people who supposedly represent our best interests put themselves in the shoes of those they are affecting?
By that I mean they need to realize that Americans don’t have the luxury of a guaranteed job for (at least) four years. They should recognize that Americans don’t have the Cadillac health care policies that Congress enjoys.
Americans can’t decide when they get a pay raise, are entitled to pensions after only four years of work, or take a total of more than half the year off from doing any work whatsoever.
You see, it doesn’t matter if they only extended the payroll tax cut for two months, because after that, a lot of money will no longer be spent in our economy, and you will see the effects of this in the following months.
The common-sense thing to do is to wait till the recession is waning, and then slowly retract this tax cut over the course of a couple years.
Rapidly removing this amount of money from the economy is going to have serious and measurable consequences.
One can only hope that the American people are getting tired of Congress’ lack of empathy, and show none of the congresspeople any sympathy during their future elections. Perhaps the best we can do as citizens is remind these people that ours is a government by the people, and for the people.
—Brandon Wertz
Oklahoma City
Oklahoma
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