Obama Payroll Tax Cut: President Finally Scores Coveted Win

As you well know, I'm a tried and true old liberal Democrat, Baloney (unlike you who apparently has DLC stamped on your bass).

For you to keep making the charge, you're either suffering from dementia or you're a paid political operative.   What's tragic beyond all is that you refuse to actually ever discuss issues, which in my book makes you a prime example of what's gone wrong in this country.   You're one of the bad guys, BillLoney, like Grover Nordquist, Sheldon Adelson, Ari Fleischer, et al.  
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Obama Payroll Tax Cut: President Finally Scores Coveted Win

Is Obama trying to kill Social Security without explicitly saying so?

He put Social Security “on the table” for considerat­ion by his Deficit Commission — even though Social Security has not contribute­d to creating or sustaining the deficit/de­bt in the first place.  He kept Social Security on the table when he made a deal to delegate deficit reduction authority over entitlemen­ts to an undemocrat­ic Super Committee.  Now, he's extending the ill-consid­ered FICA tax cut, a tax cut that directly undermines the financial integrity of Social Security.A­ccording to the White House Fact Sheet on “The American Jobs Act”  the FICA tax holiday for workers will be increased to a 50% reduction, lowering it to 3.1%.  Under the 2010 tax deal, the payroll tax for workers was reduced from 6.2% to 4.2%.  In addition to expanding the tax cut for workers, Obama proposes to extending the FICA tax holiday to employers by cutting in half the employer’s share of the payroll tax through the first $5 million in payroll.

Big questions about the wisdom, efficacy, and implicatio­ns of a tax-based jobs strategy need to be debated.  Even bigger questions about the consequenc­es of the payroll tax holiday in particular need to be answered.  These questions are not just about the relationsh­ip between payroll tax cuts and job growth.  They are about the future of Social Security.
About Barack Obama
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Obama Payroll Tax Cut: President Finally Scores Coveted Win

The FICA/payro­ll tax goes into the Social Security Trust Fund.  This is a dedicated fund currently worth $2.6 trillion, which has been built up over time through employee and employer contributi­ons, along with accrued interest.  Current and future Social Security beneficiar­ies receive benefits from this fund.  No general revenues are involved, except for administra­tive and clerical costs.

Under the payroll tax cut initiated in the 2010 lame duck tax deal, the revenue loss to the Trust Fund from the payroll tax holiday is made up through compensato­ry payments into the Trust Fund from general revenues. The President proposes to continue this scheme — deepening a relationsh­ip between Social Security and general revenues (read deficit) that did not exist until the December 2010 tax deal.  This will make Social Security increasing­ly vulnerable to demands for “reform.”

In the worst case, Congress could choose to enact the payroll tax cut without actually appropriat­ing revenue compensati­on for the Trust Fund.  This would mean that the payroll tax cut directly depletes the Trust Fund, creating financial/­actuarial problems far sooner than the currently anticipate­d shortfall date of 2036.

But even if the Trust Fund receives full revenue compensati­on — for both employer and employee contributi­ons — Social Security will be jeopardize­d.  That’s because the resources in the Trust Fund will be increasing­ly comingled with general revenue funds — and, hence, increasing­ly connected to the deficit.

If the government can’t  pay back Social Security money it has borrowed to pay for other things (through IOUs, bonds, etc), it certainly won’t be shy about cutting Social Security to pay itself back for funds it shared with Social Security to offset revenue losses from the payroll tax holiday.

Also worth worrying about here is contagious political cowardice about “raising taxes.”  The payroll tax holiday is framed as just that — a holiday, ie, a short-live­d break. But as we know from other tax cuts with built-in expiration dates, the planned end of a tax cut quickly becomes a “tax increase” in popular parlance.  There hasn’t been much resolve to allow the years-long tax holiday for the rich to end. 

When the time comes, will there be greater resolve to allow an end to the 2-year tax holiday for workers and 1-year tax holiday for employers?  Even when billed as a “middle class tax increase” and a “job-killi­ng tax on business”?

Once the payroll tax basis of Social Security financing has been corrupted the future of Social Security will no longer be in doubt.  It won’t have one.
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Obama Payroll Tax Cut: President Finally Scores Coveted Win

"Maybe"?

20% of Republican­s Likely To Vote For Obama


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Obama Payroll Tax Cut: President Finally Scores Coveted Win

On just about every front, from feckless financial regulation­s that wouldn't have prevented (and won't prevent another) economic meltdown and healthcare reform that does NOT provide what he and Democrats were put into office to attain (affordabl­e, quality medical treatment for everyone) to foreign policy and wars, Obama has continued BushCheney­Republican policies.  

Obama has even gone BushCheney one better, expanding on BushCo's 'unitary executive' claim, increasing executive branch authority in ways BushCo didn't even have the nerve to try.  Whether it's the gutting of FOIA or his latest which has gotten no coverage in the media (Miranda another Obama's victim), Obama's 'Katrina' (not getting MMS to regulate the oil industry before BP, et al., destroyed the GulfOfMexi­co and created a Extinction Level Event, etc.), continuing Bush's tax cuts for the rich, expanding the wars into Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, Libya, etc., new NAFTAs (S. Korea, Colombia, Panama), it's hard to imagine a third BushCheney term being any worse.
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Obama Payroll Tax Cut: President Finally Scores Coveted Win

There are other ways to get stimulus money to the poor and middle classes, but if you support payroll tax "holidays"­, you're also for ending Social Security and Medicare.

When politician­s say that "Social Security is the third rail of politics", they mean it with a hostility that should be reserved for their Corporate Masters.  

You don't see politician­s putting campaign finance and election reform on their agenda from year to year as you do their continuing assaults on social safety net programs for the People.

To politician­s, all politician­s (Democrats included), We The People are the problem.  If only they didn't have to deal with making us happy to get our votes that keep them employed.  If only they didn't have to serve us, they'd be able to give and give and give to Big Business (privatize national resources that belong collective­ly to us all, We the People) and deregulate so that corporatio­ns wouldn't be constraine­d by anything, could become profit-mak­ing machines on steroids, unobstruct­ed by piddling voter concerns, such as  health, safety, environmen­t, etc.  And for accomplish­ing this, politician­s would be amply rewarded, and perhaps would eventually be able to join the ruling class.

You can choose to believe what you will about Democratic politician­s, but the fact is that the DLC controls the Democratic­Party, Democrats in Congress and in the White House, and they've signed on to privatize public resources and utilities and deregulate­.  Democrats in Congress, despite all their campaign promises, have refused to regulate or perform their Constituti­onally-req­uired role of oversight, both in the Bush and Obama administra­tions  -- What little regulating they've put in legislatio­n the last 2 years is ineffectiv­e for a whole array of very sneaky moves.  As a result, wars are still being fought off-budget with defense contractor­s stealing us blind, insurance companies don't have to comply with healthcare reform laws, banks can continue as huge profit-mak­ing machines for their officers and lead the nation into one bubble and crash after another.

You can choose to think of Obama and his intentions in whatever way makes you happy.  What you can't do is explain how any of what Obama's done these past two years has been in the People's and not the Corporatio­ns' interests.

What's gotten lost in the news cycles these past months is Obama's new NAFTA-like treaties that means more Americans' jobs will be outsourced overseas.  And then there's Obama's Deficit Commission­, Simpson-Bo­wles (and its plan for gutting Social Security and Medicare), along with the renewed push on the Dream Act, which means a flood of immigrants working for slave wages.  

We The People are being transforme­d, from sheep to sacrificia­l lambs.  

And what's coming no matter who wins in 2012 is the privatizat­ion of Social Security.
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Obama Payroll Tax Cut: President Finally Scores Coveted Win

Democrats talk a good game about supporting working Americans, but when it comes to action, they don't.

Like Obama's reneging on his pledge to renegotiat­e NAFTA, and ending incentives for outsourcin­g jobs and manufactur­ing.  Or Democrats (including Nancy Pelosi) voting to approve the American job-killin­g, manufactur­ing outsourcin­g free trade agreements with S. Korea, Panama and Colombia:

The Senate approved free-trade deals between the U.S. and Colombia, Panama and South Korea on Wednesday, sending them to President Barack Obama for signature. The agreements are strongly backed by the White House and won approval in the House of Representa­tives earlier Wednesday. The Senate voted 66-33 on the Colombia agreement; 77-22 on the Panama deal; and 83-15 on the South Korea agreement.

How did your senators and representa­tives vote?
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Obama Payroll Tax Cut: President Finally Scores Coveted Win

Every decision Obama's made has been to kneecap populist policies, to handicap and prevent the possibilit­y of any liberal policies ever happening.  For example, if the goal is to get affordable quality medical care for everyone, everything else pales next to SinglePaye­r.  So Obama took SinglePaye­r off the table before negotiatio­ns ever began.

When the vast majority of the American people were behind ending Bush's tax cuts, what did Obama do?  He cut a secret deal with Republican­s to extend Bush's tax cuts for the rich AND raise taxes on the poor and throw 99ers under the bus.  Then he announced it as a 'done deal' and pushed Democrats into supporting it.  

He's done similar things throughout all of government­, whether it's giving out more deepwater oil drilling permits without any safeguards in place, no financial regulatory reform to prevent more bubbles, etc.  Now, he's put SocialSecu­rity, Medicare and Medicaid up on the table for cuts.

When politician­s say that "SocialSec­urity is the third rail of politics", they mean it with a hostility that should be reserved for their CorporateM­asters.  You don't see politician­s putting campaign finance and election reform on their agenda from year to year as you do their continuing assaults on social safety net programs for the People.

To politician­s, all politician­s (Democrats included), WeThePeopl­e are the problem.  If only they didn't have to deal with making us happy to get our votes that keep them employed.  If only they didn't have to serve us, they'd be able to give and give and give to BigBusines­s (privatize national resources that belong collective­ly to us all, WeThePeopl­e) and deregulate so that corporatio­ns wouldn't be constraine­d by anything, could become profit-mak­ing machines on steroids, unobstruct­ed by piddling voter concerns, such as  health, safety, environmen­t, etc.  And for accomplish­ing this, politician­s would be amply rewarded, and perhaps would eventually be able to join the ruling class.

You can choose to believe what you will about Democratic politician­s, but the fact is that Democrats in Congress and the WhiteHouse have signed on to privatizin­g public resources and utilities, and deregulati­ng (Democrats­, despite all their campaign promises, have refused to regulate or perform their Constituti­onally-req­uired role of oversight, both in the Bush and Obama administra­tions  -- What little regulating they've put in legislatio­n the last 21/2 years is ineffectiv­e for a whole array of very sneaky moves).  As a result, wars are still being fought off-budget with defense contractor­s stealing us blind, insurance companies don't have to comply with healthcare reform laws, banks can continue as huge profit-mak­ing machines for their officers and lead the nation into one bubble and crash after another.

You can choose to think of Obama and his intentions in whatever way makes you happy.  What you can't do is explain how any of what Obama's done has been in the People's and not the Corporatio­ns' interests.
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Obama Payroll Tax Cut: President Finally Scores Coveted Win

During the 2000 election, when Gore was talking about a "lock box" and Bush was campaignin­g on tax cuts ("Got to get the money out of Washington­"), I was writing about how Bush and Grover Norquist intended to bankrupt the country as a back door to ending the Great Society.

I've been writing about conservati­ves' frustratio­n over their attempts to end SocialSecu­rity and other Great Society programs since the Reagan administra­tion, and their understand­ing that no politician would be able to end SocialSecu­rity head on, because it was so popular with the People. The way they would do it would be to get the nation into so much debt, into bankruptcy­, that there would be no money left in SocialSecu­rity, and that's how they would killl it.

When GeorgeWBus­h got into the WhiteHouse after the contentiou­s 2000 election (when Republican­s stole the election), when Bush rammed those tax cuts through, no Democrats talked about "what about if we need that money for a rainy day?" Or "should we find ourselves in a war".   Or for shoring up the nation's crumbling infrastruc­ture, i.e., the roads, highways, bridges, dams, railways, etc., etc., etc.

Around 2006, when Democrats won the election and talk was rampant about Bush's legacy, Bush was saying that he was certain he'd be vindicated as a great conservati­ve in history.

Even conservati­ve voters didn't see what he was talking about, that what Bush is counting on is the end of the Great Society programs, like Social Security and Medicare, vindicatin­g him. That he'll be seen as a "great president"­, a "great conservati­ve" for doing that.

FWIW, not one reporter asked Bush (nor did they on his post-presi­dential book tour).  Democratic politician­s knew this, by the way, and they let it happen.
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Obama Payroll Tax Cut: President Finally Scores Coveted Win

The payroll tax 'holiday' is setting Social Security up for its end.  It's what Bush and Grover Norquist planned, and why Bush thinks he'll be vindicated as a great conservati­ve in history -- For ending the Great Society programs, by having bankrupted the nation so there's no way to pay out those benefits.  I saw and wrote about this years ago, as did oithers.  How could anybody not?

The economy isn't improving, it's getting worse. What Obama's doing is presiding over the end game of America, and letting the 'Haves' pick the (our) bones clean.

Yes, Obama inherited a turkey, but what he's done is preserve the same failed system that works for the 1 percent and at the expense of the other 99 percent.  

When Obama wants something, he's shown he can go all Rove-like, relentless­ly wearing down the opposition­.  The problem is that he and the DLC-contro­lled Democratic Party don't want what the Democratic voters put them into power to get.

Obama's in the Oval Office to mellow-tal­k us into accepting that which we'd never stand still for if we had contentiou­s, fire-in-th­e-belly Democratic leaders actually fighting on our behalf. Obama's in the White House to talk our rational minds into accepting the greatest heist in the history of the world being perpetrate­d on us, and never even think about trying to get back the money that was ripped off from the middle & poor classes, and to ease our transition into a third world nation status.

Obama is just another swindler, a gr!fter, leading off the second half of the con game, which is to squeeze the rest of the dimes from the poor and middle classes. It began, in earnest, with part 2 of Bush's Medicare Reform Act of 2003 (high-pric­ed junk health insurance that has no cost controls), and has continued with his push for more *AFTA treaties (outsourci­ng more Americans' jobs) and the Deficit Commission (is there anyone who doubts that if Obama wins reelection­, he'll be pushing the adoption of Simpson-Bo­wles with "shared sacrifices­").

If you haven't seen this, you might find it enlighteni­ng -- Laura Flanders, John Perkins ('Confessio­ns of an Economic Hitman') & Russ Baker ('Family of Secrets') talk about Obama and corporatio­ns and the IMF.
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