Payroll tax holiday is a GIANT give away to Corporate America!

[leftinportland]

I've heard all week about how great the 2% payroll tax holiday is but no one has mentioned this side of it. This is the FICA tax - Social Security/Medicare and for every dollar of our contribution from our pay our employer puts in an equal amount. Currently our employer's contribute an additional 6.5% to Social Security/Medicare for a combined total of 13%. The 'holiday' will reduce the contribution to 4.5%. This is a GIANT give away to every single employer - a 2% reduction in their payroll obligation. Might be good for the corner grocer if there were any left. Imagine the savings the WalMarts of this country will enjoy...

EDIT: I did not see this article until after writing this. Apparently the employer does not get a break: "Social Security is funded by a 6.2 percent payroll tax on the first $106,800 earned by a worker. The tax is matched by employers. The package negotiated by Obama would reduce the tax paid by workers to 4.2 percent for 2011. Employer rates would stay unchanged." http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gzmqUzt0ujbXMmahO1KZFzlvuXDA?docId=77d34c4d22bc423ba728fce6dfecef6b

But it's still a bad idea!

[DrDan]

1. the employee gets the 2% break - not the employer

not that I agree that there should be any cut

[Davis_X_Machina]

2. Facts? Facts? At DU?

You've got a helluva nerve.

[Statistical]

4. The sad thing is your sarcasm aside it got up to +2 so many on DU believe that. n/t

[DrDan]

5. ? = believe what?

[Statistical]

8. Believe the OP statement obviously.

Maybe I am the only one but I think it is sad that someone can make a fact-less thread, throw CORPORATE into the mix and it gets recced up.

So not only is the OP uninformed (or willingly misleading) but other people on DU are equally uniformed (or wanting to be mislead).
Then we bash freepers for being uniformed and lacking facts in their arguments.

My post wasn't direct at you DrDan are at least trying to inject facts into the discussion (a sometimes explosive thing if the facts aren't "worker friendly").

[DrDan]

11. yeah - there are enough things to be upset about without injecting some erroneous "facts"

whether intentionally or not

[leftinportland]

13. This post is not without facts!

The fact is that for every dollar of payroll tax taken from our paychecks an equal amount is contributed by our employers. If we pay x amount they pay x amount. Do the arithmatic! The bosses are getting the reduction as well. No one has yet to say otherwise!

[Statistical]

14. No everyone from the President down has clearly said "otherwise"

The employer rate will remain 6.2% the employee rate will drop 2% to 4.2%.

Then again facts aren't important in rants so

RANT ON! RANT ON! Don't ever let facts slow you down.

[Statistical]

3. Nope. 2% reduction on employee 0.0% reduction on employer side.

Any other fact-less rants you want dispelled?

[Gin]

6. I don't care which side gets the 2% reduction....this is a BAD idea

to take money from the SS fund for any reason....if they wanted a payroll tax reduction....take it from the income tax..not the FICA side..this is a backdoor way to ruin the program. (IMO)

[Davis_X_Machina]

7. The FICA funds not collected...

...under the bill are taken from the income, etc. tax -- general federal revenues -- to make FICA whole again.

The bill does what you ask.

[Statistical]

9. Not true.

The estimated "shortfall" will be $120B. As a result the bill includes $120B in funding from general fund.

The net change in SS balance and revenue is $0.00

[doc03]

15. The SS fund is not broke the general fund is broke

Didn't you catch the catfood commission recommendations? They want to cut the SS COLA and raise the retirement age to reduce the (federal debt). Now if you take more funding from general fund you are raising the debt even more. The federal debt is owned by American citizens and by foreign governments. They aren't going to cut the interest payments on foreign governments and lose the full faith and trust of the US government. So there is one solution, screw the retirees.

[TheKentuckian]

10. No just general defunding of the government

[laughingliberal]

12. Only the employee side will be cut. Still a very bad deal, though. nt

[subterranean]

16. The payroll tax holiday is a Republican idea supported by enemies of Social Security.

The Koch brothers like it. The American Enterprise Institute likes it. Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowels like it. Mitch McConnell likes it. That should tell you all you need to know.

[L0oniX]

17. Boldly helping to bankrupt SS. Thanks!

:mad:

[Odin2005]

18. It is a plot to damage the sustainibility of SS.