Social Security Advocates Fear Payroll Tax Cut

Payroll tax cut worries Social Security advocates (AP)
WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama's plan to cut Payroll taxes for a year would provide big savings for many workers, but makes Social Security advocates nervous that it could jeopardize the Retirement program's finances. The plan is part of a package of Tax Cuts and extended Unemployment Benefits that Obama negotiated with Senate Republican leaders. It would cut workers' share of Social Security taxes by nearly one-third for 2011. Workers making $50,000 in wages would get a $1,000 tax ...

Social Security advocates fear payroll tax cut
WASHINGTON— President Barack Obama’s plan to cut Payroll taxes for a year would provide big savings for many workers but makes Social Security advocates nervous that it could jeopardize the Retirement program’s finances. The plan is part of a package of Tax Cuts and extended Unemployment Benefits that Obama negotiated with Senate Republican leaders. It would cut workers’ share of Social Security taxes by nearly one-third for 2011. Workers making $50,000 in wages woul...

Social Security advocates fear payroll tax cut (AP)
WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama's plan to cut Payroll taxes for a year would provide big savings for many workers but makes Social Security advocates nervous that it could jeopardize the Retirement program's finances. The plan is part of a package of Tax Cuts and extended Unemployment Benefits that Obama negotiated with Senate Republican leaders. It would cut workers' share of Social Security taxes by nearly one-third for 2011. Workers making $50,000 in wages would get a $1,000 tax c...

Social Security advocates fear payroll tax cut
WASHINGTON (AP) - President Barack Obama's plan to cut Payroll taxes for a year would provide big savings for many workers. But Social Security advocates are nervous that it could jeopardize the Retirement program's finances. The plan is part of a Tax Cut and extended Unemployment Benefits package that Obama negotiated with Senate Republican leaders. It would trim workers' share of Social Security taxes by nearly one-third for 2011. Workers making $50,000 in wages would get a $1,000 tax cut; th...

Harkin, Dean raise doubts on Social Security tax holiday; AARP silent
Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) and former Gov. Howard Dean (D-Vt.) are both raising doubts about an aspect of President Barack Obama's tax-cut deal that has not received much criticism: a one-year, two-percentage point cut in employees' share of the Social Security Payroll Tax. By contrast, a group which usually mounts staunch opposition to changes in the Social Security funding mechanism, the AARP, has remained silent about the proposed Payroll tax holiday. "That’s another thing that I rea...

Senate poised to take up tax bill
Published: Dec. 13, 2010 at 7:22 AM WASHINGTON, Dec. 13 (UPI) -- The U.S. Senate is set to conduct a key vote Monday on the tax-rate deal reached between President Obama and congressional Republicans. The Senate is scheduled to hold a procedural vote and likely could give final approval to the $858 billion proposal Tuesday, The New York Times reported. House Democratic leaders, while frustrated about elements of the bill -- particularly extending lower Tax Rates for top-tier Taxpayers -- signale...

First Senate vote expected on Obama-GOP tax deal
WASHINGTON (AP) — Senators get their first chance Monday to vote on the tax-cut deal struck by President Barack Obama and Republicans, but whatever the outcome of the test vote, the White House expects the bill to pass by year's end. "Everybody understands what it would mean for The Economy if we don't get this done," Obama adviser David Axelrod said Sunday. The No. 2 Senate Democrat, Dick Durbin of Illinois, said a "good cross-section" of senators in his party are ready to accept the de...

Block Those Economic Metaphors
Like it or not — and I don’t — the Obama-McConnell tax-cut deal, with its mixture of very bad stuff and sort-of-kind-of good stuff, is likely to pass Congress. Then what? The deal will, without question, give The Economy a short-term boost. The prevailing view, as far as I can tell — and that includes within the Obama Administration — is that this short-term boost is all we need. The deal, we’re told, will jump-start the economy; it will give a fragile recove...

Uniting Behind Fiscal Irresponsibility (III)
Andrew: It [the tax deal] could also lead to a spectacular black eye for the GOP establishment. Does anyone believe that the Tea Party campaigned so hard in order to have the Congress pass a second stimulus - as pricey as the first, and borrowed entirely from the Chinese [bold mine-DL]? Think what happens after the deal is passed, and the truth of it sinks in with the base. The GOP Civil War will begin in earnest - especially if Obama outflanks the GOP on long-term Debt reduction i...

Robert Kuttner: Social Security: The Coming Cave-in
If you think the Democratic Base is mad at Obama now for making a craven deal with Republicans that continues Tax Breaks for the Richest Americans and adds new ones for their heirs through a big cut in the Estate Tax, just wait a few weeks until Obama caves on Social Security. How will this occur? The Deficit commission appointed by the President has called for an increase in the Retirement Age, as well as other cuts in benefits over time. And the deal that Obama made with the Republicans jus...

Note to Emperors: Seeking Clothes? Try Craigslist
Fox News presents, with all the trappings of sobriety and firmness of conviction, a story warning that lower Social Security taxes might “jeopardize the Retirement program’s finances.” What a laugh. The featured liar, Rep. Earl Pomeroy, D-N.D., chairman of the House Ways and Means subcommittee on Social Security, insists that Social Security taxes “ought to be held sacrosanct.” What he doesn’t reveal is that he and his Bipartisan band of robbers have looted ...

Tax Cut Negotiations Continue, Udall Stands Firm
[E]ight Democrats including Ohio's Sherrod Brown wrote to Majority Leader Harry Reid to propose capping the Tax Breaks for incomes over $1 million. People making more than that would go back to Clinton-era Tax Rates. The savings should be used to shore up Social Security, Brown and the others wrote. [Pols emphasis] Class warfare? Not at all, these Democrats say. "Success in America should rightly be celebrated, but the very wealthy do not need Bonus Tax Cuts and America cannot afford to give ...

Why Do Deficit Hawks Hate Social Security
Last week, Social Security advocates learned something they had long suspected. Arguments for cutting Social Security aren't really about economics or the Deficit. They're all about waging war on Social Services. In short, some very prominent policymakers are out to dismantle Social Security on ideological grounds. The most recent example of this view comes from Alan Simpson, a former Republican Senator from Wyoming who now serves as co-Chair of President Barack Obama's Federal Debt Commission. ...

Malkin: Small-Biz Killers: Who Pays for Jobless Benefits?
There is no such thing as a "free" government benefit. Ask small-business owners who are footing skyrocketing bills for bottomless jobless benefits. While politicians in Washington negotiate a deal to provide welcome temporary Payroll, income and Estate Tax relief to America's workers, struggling employers wonder how long they'll have to pay for the compassion of others -- and whether they can survive. The Beltway deal hinges on extending federal Unemployment Insurance for another 13 months. Thi...

John Boehner says Barack Obama disrespected him during tax-cut extension battle
John Boehner says Barack Obama disrespected him during tax-cut  extension battle. On an appearance on 60 Minutes on Sunday evening, incoming Speaker of the House John Boehner scolded Barack Obama for what he says was the disrespect that the president showed him during the battle over extending all of the Bush-era Tax Cuts. Specifically, Boenher really disliked the time last week when Obama held a Press Conference to broadly accuse the GOP of taking the American People hostage over their pri...

Huckabee: Obama self-destructed at tax deal press conference
Washington (CNN) - In the eyes of former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, President Obama's Press Conference last week to address his deal with Republicans on taxes and Unemployment Benefits was "amateurish." "The most bizarre part of the whole process was watching President Obama self-destruct at the podium yesterday," Huckabee told the National Journal in an interview published Monday, when asked about the tax deal. "I was just stunned - I really couldn't believe that a man that was elected presid...

Tax Deal Faces First Vote; What Should Congress Do?
What is this? The Senate this afternoon is expected to hold the first in a series of votes on the tax deal agreed to last week by President Obama and Republican leaders in Congress. As The Washington Post writes this morning, "the latest tallies by Party Leaders suggest that the Obama-GOP package will clear the Senate with relative ease, Senate Majority Whip Richard J. Durbin, D-IL, told CNN's State of the Union on Sunday." President Obama former President Clinton at the White House on Frid...

Tax plan to hit Mass. wallets
The political battle still raging in Washington over Tax Cuts could have a dramatic effect on Bay State billfolds no matter how it is resolved, local experts said. Beacon Hill Institute boss David Tuerck noted that the Bay State economy relies heavily on high-tech investment, which theoretically will be fueled by maintaining the tax cuts. “It’s important for taxes to be kept low and to be kept low with predictability going into the future,” Tuerck said. But it isn’t as m...

A.M. Vitals: Sanofi Extends Offer for Genzyme; Few So Far Have Bitten
By Katherine Hobson New Deadline : Sanofi-Aventis extended the deadline for its $18.5 billion offer for the Boston Biotech Genzyme until Jan. 21, the WSJ reports. It’s unclear what will happen without a change in terms, however; only 0.9% of Genzyme shares have been tendered at the current $69-per-share offer, the paper says. The companies still differ in their assessment of how much Genzyme and in particular its potential MS treatment, Campath, are worth. Provision at Issue : Republicans...

Axelrod sells a brighter future
David Axelrod took to the television Talk Shows Sunday to assuage House Democrats and other Liberals infuriated by a deal to extend the Bush-era Tax Cuts, saying Democrats might score a more palatable deal in 2012. "The Economy will be stronger,” the senior presidential adviser told Christiane Amanpour on ABC's "This Week," one of three shows on which he appeared Sunday morning. “We'll have gone through a big debate on — on how we have to — what we have ...

Florida's economy can boom if Rick Scott doesn't blow it
If Florida were on the Stock Market, this would be the time to buy. Dump California, New York, New Jersey and Illinois. Put your money in Florida. And this comes from the guy who picked Florida's demise way back when. Get the day's top stories in your inbox. Click here to sign up for the Midday Update newsletter What goes down eventually goes up, except for California and Enron. Florida has hit bottom. And now it is positioned for recovery if Rick Scott doesn't piddle away his time on immigrat...

Tax plan's $900 billion hangover
Commentary: Maya MacGuineas is the director of the fiscal policy program at the New America Foundation. What happened!? Just two weeks ago we were celebrating the willingness of the political class -- or at least an influential subset of it -- to finally get realistic and confront the nation's fiscal challenges. Email Print Comment Congress, Obama and your money The remarkable success of President Obama's fiscal commission came as a welcome surprise. The panel came up with an outstanding budge...

First Senate Vote Expected Monday on Tax Compromise Bill
Monday, December 13, 2010 By Hope Yen, Associated Press White House Senior Advisor David Axelrod talks about Tax Cuts on CBS's Face the Nation in Washington on Sunday, Dec. 12, 2010. (AP Photo/CBS, Chris Usher) Washington (AP) - Senators get their first chance Monday to vote on the tax-rate deal struck by President Barack Obama and Republicans, but whatever the outcome of the test vote, the White House expects the bill to pass by year's end. "Everybody understands what it would mean fo...

First Senate vote expected on Obama-GOP tax deal
WASHINGTON—Senators get their first chance Monday to vote on the tax-cut deal struck by President Barack Obama and Republicans, but whatever the outcome of the test vote, the White House expects the bill to pass by year's end. "Everybody understands what it would mean for The Economy if we don't get this done," Obama adviser David Axelrod said Sunday. The No. 2 Senate Democrat, Dick Durbin of Illinois, said a "good cross-section" of senators in his party are ready to accept the deal. The ...

Dishonorable Obama, Congress & Media Dont Give a Serious God-Damn About Massive & Gratuitous Poverty and Violence
Meet the Press hosted apologists for Obama and corporatists everywhere. Defense of Tax Cuts for the rich the topic this time. Opportunities for disgust and disdain against those purist ideology-lefties a/k/a more "hippie punching," of course was enjoyed by all. All but one, Anthony Weiner who was the token liberal sounding one this week (to be piled on). Mikey Bloomberg was blunt that liberal complainers need to “suck it up!” And, oh yes, he wants a subway series. (Yeah, let’s ...