Democrats eye GOP tax cut ideas to boost jobs

[The Northerner]

WASHINGTON – Desperate to boost employment and their bleak poll numbers, the White House and Democrats in Congress are turning to a Republican idea for stimulating the economy: tax cuts.

With little chance of passing a bill to stimulate the economy through more government spending, some Democrats now want to give employers a break on their Social Security payroll taxes and possibly extend a break for workers.

The most prominent idea would continue and maybe expand the payroll tax cut for individuals which was enacted in December and expires at the end of the year. Some Senate Democrats also want to revive an expired payroll tax holiday for companies that hire unemployed workers.

Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., said gloomy unemployment reports are a wake-up call that the economic recovery is on shaky ground. New poll numbers also show that more and more Americans are unhappy with the way President Barack Obama and Democrats in general are handling the economy and unemployment.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110623/ap_on_re_us/us_jobs_taxes

[mmonk]

1. Yes. It's worked so well this decade.

NOT.

[Ian David]

2. That WOULD provide a very short-term stimulus. But it would have to be done "correctly.'

The Repukes don't believe they got a tax cut from President Obama, because they didn't physically hold it in their hands and SEE it.

What BUSH did was:

1) Sent a letter saying, "You're gonna get a check from the Treasury Department. Heh heh. Use it to buy some brush to clear."
2) Sent a check for like $200 with a note saying, "This was all my idea because I'm the decider guy. Heh heh. Go buy a hammock."

President Obama needs to make sure that any rebate comes in the form of a check, along with a cover letter bearing the President's signature, or people will never believe they got the money.

Hopefully, it would be timed to provide its short little bump right before the election.

Actually, maybe everyone should get their check in October?

[fascisthunter]

3. FRAUDS... they KNOW this won't do shit for jobs

they are fucking LIARS!

[Autumn]

4. Yeah it's done so fantastic for the last 10

years. Lets do more tax cuts, especially on Social Security payroll taxes. :banghead: I'm almost sure they haven't cut enough from programs for the needy.

[theaocp]

5. Anyone who supports this idea

deserves everything the Democrats will heap at their feet. Unfuckingbelievable.

[KansDem]

6. It's worked so well for the past 30 years. Remember "trickle down?"

I can't believe we're even thinking about going this route again. And again...

[Name removed]

7. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[mmonk]

8. I guess it depends if one considers Reganomics or supply side economics

Democratic or Republican.

[Cali_Democrat]

9. *FACEPALM*

[Hell Hath No Fury]

10. Jesus fucking christ.

If this is the best the Dems have then just shut down the damned Democratic Party headquaters and turn out the lights. Seriously, what's the fucking point???

[Chisox08]

11. Tax cuts creating jobs!?

If they did then where are the jobs? Bush's tax cuts nor did Obama's extension didn't create job. We didn't get trickle down we got a golden shower from the richest 2% of Americans.

[WillyT]

12. :FACEPALM:

:evilgrin:

[sufrommich]

13. It's the democrats talking about keeping tax cuts for the middle

and working class. They're positioning to make the republicans deny tax cuts to lower and middle income people to save the tax cuts for the rich.

[Octafish]

21. That's the excuse every time. And every time the Big Bucks go to the Wealthy.

Every time, since 1981.

[mmonk]

22. I'm concerned about economic impact at this point, not politics.

Federal taxes are at all time lows and aren't causing unemployment. They are not going to hire until demand demands it and there is no assurance they will hire here.

[jmowreader]

14. I think they're trying to shut the teabaggers up

The White House and Congressional Democrats know this shit never works--anyone in Congress when Clinton was president knows if you raise taxes and spend the money on infrastructure, jobs are created.

The problem with all this payroll tax bullshit is the federal FICA tax is 6.2 percent on the employer and 6.2 percent on the employee. If you make $1000 per week pre-tax (40 hours at $25 per hour), your full payroll tax is $62--and not all that many people make $25 per hour. (Reality is more like a guy pulling $12.50 per hour and paying $31 in federal payroll tax. Yes, I know "payroll tax" also includes unemployment insurance, but I'm not going to talk about it because your unemployment insurance premium will vary not only by state but by employer--if you work for a company that routinely lays people off you'll pay more than someone who works for a company that never does layoffs.) What I'm saying is, even if you eliminated the payroll tax entirely it wouldn't be stimulative because you can't do anything interesting, like buying cars, with that little money.

One big problem we have is our media industry. To them every tax cut is held in the same reverence, just as every new job is held in the same reverence. I was talking to my editor one day..."can't we figure out some way to heap more praise on someone who creates high paying jobs than on someone who creates minimum wage ones?" He understood.

[xphile]

15. How fucking stupid are they?

It hasn't worked for the last 30 goddamn years they really think supply side fuckery is going to magically start working now? WTF?

[kenny blankenship]

16. This is why hydrocephalic sideshow freaks like Gingrich & Limbaugh ARE ABLE to claim victory

in the partisan "War of Ideas". Because whenever the going gets tough, the Democrats always run to the "safety" of Republican capital-uber-alles ideology, forgetting their party used to have ideas and values of its own. Then on election day, they wonder how in the world they got slaughtered again.

Frankly, if the question is, "Who can do the better job slashing programs to finance tax breaks for the rich?" I would vote Republican. If you want trickle down, vote for people who really believe in it, not the ones who say they believe in it when they are too frightened to say what they really believe.

I don't know which is more depressing - watching Democrats on Capitol Hill and in the White House betray America, their voting base and their party's traditional principles, or watching rank and file Democrats gulp down another steaming load of betrayal, because they believe they have "nowhere else to go."

[spanone]

17. we've had 10 years of steady tax cuts and here we are....

[Octafish]

18. LOL. If we Dems have to follow the GOP for ideas, we are totally fucked.

Oops. When we Dems have to follow the GOP for ideas, we are totally fucked.

[neverforget]

19. If tax cuts are so fucking good we should be at full employment now.

AND I thought the deficit was going to destroy us all? :eyes: :banghead:

[scarletwoman]

20. Great. Sounds like a plan. Like, a plan for Social Security to die a slow death through defunding.

Count on the Republicans to make a frontal attack which causes a great many citizens to recoil in horror.

Count on the Democrats to meanwhile mount a sneak attack that will accomplish the same thing, but more slowly and without the fanfare.

The Politcal Class works for the Owner Class, they do not work for us. It's utterly foolish to deny this. Yes, there are exceptions, but they are not in positions of any real power. The System knows it's safe from such outliers, and the outliers (inadvertently, one hopes) provide good cover besides.

As long as we hold out hope that the Political Class will somehow bestir itself to do something that actually helps US (the proles, the peasants, the subjects), we are losing ground and wasting time and energy that ought to be used to create alternative ways to organize ourselves, and alternative systems by which we can free ourselves from dependence on the System.

This is not to say that we should not vote -- I mean, geeze, voting is the very LEAST you can do! It's just stupid not to vote for Dems, because no matter how much they are NOT on your side, they will predictably fuck you over at much slower pace than Republicans. It buys all of us more time to work on what we REALLY need to be working on.

And for sure keep raising a ruckus at your elected policians in any way you can. They do worry about keeping up appearances, even while they're busy figuring out how screw you behind the scenes. So do make sure they know that you are watching, and are on to their game.

All that being said, for gawdsakes understand that the Political Class does NOT share your interests or priorities. They work for the interests and priorities of the Owner Class. And part of their job is to help keep the masses pacified and distracted (which also happens to be the job of the corporate media, btw).

The revolution we need is a revolution of perception. A revolution of the mind. Free yourself of illusional and delusional thinking, and focus your passion and creativity on making over the world from yourself outward.

sw
(edited for missing word)

[customerserviceguy]

27. Exactly right

When a FICA cut is "made up" for by a transfer from the general fund which is borrowed as part of the national debt, then Social Security becomes a part of the deficit problem. We need to raise the cap modestly on workers, and lift it to the skies on the employer share of FICA, and not touch the already precarious state of the trust fund.

[scarletwoman]

28. Thank you for putting this so succinctly!

Well done. :thumbsup:

[customerserviceguy]

29. You are most welcome

President Obama's caving on the Bush tax cuts is only matched by his counting the FICA tax reduction as some sort of victory, when the Repukes go to gut Social Security again, he won't have a philosophical leg left to stand on.

[Edweird]

23. In all seriousness: WHAT THE FUCKING FUCK? Oh, that's right: tax cuts are 'progressive' now.

Since Obama is the most 'progressive' president in a hundred zillion years who has the support of 764632987637% of "liberals" EVERYTHING - no matter how FAR RIGHT WING is now, suddenly, "progressive". It may be time for me to reconsider my party afffiliation. This is getting to be too much, and I'm no 'super liberal'.

[TheKentuckian]

24. Poit

[Odin2005]

25. *FACEPLAM*

[customerserviceguy]

26. Not in favor of extending the FICA cut

But one of the few things that worked from Reagan's tax fantasies was the Targeted Jobs Tax Credit.

Right now, folks who have been unemployed for more than six months are treated like lepers because "there's something wrong with them". If an employer could get a few thousand buck tax credit for employing the long term unemployed, they'd really sift through those resumes and interviews to find the worthwhile people who just have had some really shitty luck.

Instead of giving indiscriminate tax cuts to those who don't create jobs, why not target them to those who really solve the hardcore unemployment problem?

[scarletwoman]

30. Morning kick. (nt)

[blindpig]

31. Whose side are they on? Wait...I know...

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_v24HZnm8kXI/SLgNY6xpbhI/AAAAAAAABLc/MmnblJvpk_0/s320/monopoly+man.gif

[Le Taz Hot]

32. Yeah, because trickle down has worked so well

so far. :wtf:

[nc4bo]

33. Absolutely nothing to add. My thoughts are well represented by the comments in this thread

They must be out of their damn minds. :wtf:

[GeorgeGist]

34. In related news ...

Scientists concede that Democrats are not immune to stupidity.