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The Spectacle Blog
Sen. Jeff Sessions questioned the valued of extending the temporary payroll tax cut for another year this morning at a press breakfast hosted by The American Spectator and Americans for Tax Reform.
“As a matter of financial responsibility, there’s nothing easy about it,” Sessions remarked, after explaining that the plan proposed by Senate Democrats would permanently raise taxes on higher income earners for only a one-year reduction of the payroll tax. The Alabaman also expressed doubt about the economic value of a payroll tax holiday. “It’s not a tax cut, I don’t think,” he said. “Social security is a trust fund, it has trustees, they have bonds when they loan to the federal government….We’re talking about having 160 million Americans not pay in to their retirement.”
Sessions’s remarks about the trust fund put him at odds with other prominent Republicans, including Governor Rick Perry, who has referred to Social Security and its trust fund as a “monstrous lie” on the campaign trail.
Nevertheless, Sessions predicted that the break would be extended in the Senate eventually, acknowledging that “probably some solution will be reached” while declining to go into detail about what the final measure might be.
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More Blog Posts by Joseph Lawler
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Bill Hussein O'Stalin| 11.30.11 @ 11:22AM
Perry is right.
There is no "trust" in the trust fund.
All the monies are lent out to be paid back in the form of tax increases by the public who contributed the money to the fund.
These payroll taxes are another form of a loan, only the public is too stupid to realize that the bill will have to be paid one day.
ncatty| 11.30.11 @ 12:10PM
Adding $900-1000 to the average family tax bill is going to hurt the economy and hurt the Republicans politically. It should be extended.
David W| 11.30.11 @ 2:32PM
When I looked at the last paper statement of my SS account (haven't figured out how to get the on-line version), there was no indication of any trust fund. Nothing that says "here is how much I and my company have put into my trust fund. " No indication of the level of return (as in interest) that my trust fund has earned. No indication of how much my trust fund is worth. Only a "promise" that I might get so much when I turn 62, more a few years later. There is a bold disclaimer that the above could change based upon what Congress does.
Does this sound like a trust fund to you??? Only one that our esteemed idiots in government can set up. If a company did that you know what would happen to the executives of that company.
Oldefarte| 11.30.11 @ 3:24PM
This is another form a STEALING from the SS trust fund that Democrats are deceptably attempting to fund a tax decrease to younger workers for vote obtaining purposes. Its amazing that it's referred to as PAYROLL TAX DECREASE, when in fact it is a theft from the SS fund!!!!!!!!!!!!
Dai Alanye | 11.30.11 @ 5:16PM
Regardless of the value or failure of Social Security and its so-called trust fund, removing the payroll tax lends more weight to a something-for-nothing mentality, exactly the wrong attitude for responsible voters and citizens.