Karl
DP Veteran
- Joined
- Sep 24, 2010
- Messages
- 5,561
- Reaction score
- 1,589
- Gender
- Undisclosed
- Political Leaning
- Progressive
False.Because the bigger answer is that this whole PR tax cut thing is a dinky gimmick BY BOTH PARTIES to try to spur demand. But the predicted demand growth will come at the expense of the stability of Social Security and Medicare. It would make more sense to reduce income tax rates, even temporarily, on whomever. [...]
It makes more sense to reduce taxes on those who are most likely to spend the tax savings -- the middle class and the poor (if the intent is to stimulate consumption). Given the blood oath the Republicans have taken to not reduce taxes on the poor without reducing taxes on the rich (who would contribute essentially nothing to consumer demand as a result), reducing payroll taxes is a way to work around Republican intransigence (i.e., since the rich do not pay much in the way of payroll taxes, most of the cut goes to the poor and middle class instead of the rich).
The Republicans do not like the poor and middle class getting a break, while the rich do not, so they are doing everything possible to poison the payroll tax cut extension, or at least extract as much blood from Obama as possible, in the way of attachments such as the XL pipeline. Quite simply the GOP is fueled by hate and greed, which has been supercharged by the Tea Party caucus.