In what can only be described as a Festivus Miracle, the House and Senate quickly adopted a two-month extension of the Payroll Tax Cut (along with several other important extenders like the Medicare “Doc Fix” and Emergency Unemployment Insurance) by unanimous consent. After weeks of acrimony, the bill passed both chambers in minutes (in fact, in an impressive feat of parliamentary procedure, the Senate acted first, and managed adopt the agreement to pass the bill before it even received it from the House).
The Payroll Tax funds Social Security benefits and the Social Security Trust Fund. Congress, of course, recognized this when it cut the Payroll Tax at President Obama’s urging last year. It therefore backfilled the Social Security Trust Fund by transferring money from the general fund to the Social Security Trust Fund. This assured that the solvency of the Social Security system was unaffected (positive or negative) by the Payroll Tax Holiday. In extending the tax cut for the next two months, Congress did the same thing, again backfilling the Social Security Trust Fund from the general fund. And so while nearly 160 million Americans will get a tax cut, seniors who rely on Social Security will not see the system compromised at all.
Unfortunately, some people continue to lie about this basic fact.
In Iowa today, Michelle Bachmann denounced Congress’s action. Bachmann claimed that “senior citizens are very upset, if you talk to them, because they recognize that they’re the ones who could end up at the short end of the stick” and that they are asking “why in the world would the politicians take money out of the Social Security trust fund?” Bachmann’s claims that the Payroll Tax Cut takes money out of the Social Security Trust Fund is not new—she has been making these false claims for weeks.
Of course, the fact that Michelle Bachmann should not be President is so self-evident that it might as well be included in the Declaration of Independence, but her statements suggest that she really is not even qualified to run. In the first place, Bachmann seems to view herself as an observer of the process, but she is in fact a central player. Because most Members had long since left town, the legislation had to pass by Unanimous Consent. As a Member of the House of Representatives, she could have come to the House Floor to object to the bill, and thus prevent its passage. Indeed, at least a couple of Republicans considered doing just this. Bachmann instead decided to stay on the campaign trail of her quixotic race for the Republican nomination for President, an election which she has absolutely no chance of winning. So for those Iowans looking for someone to stand up for their principles, they know not to vote for her.
Worse, however, is her continuing outright lie on the subject of the Social Security Trust Fund. While Bachmann’s statements could be chalked up to the absurd ravings of a fringe candidate, she is still treated by the press as a serious competitor—allowed to participate in debates, and as recently as Thursday appearing as a guest during the prime hours of the morning shows on NBC, CBS, and CNN. And no one is calling her out for what is either the worst case of policy incompetence or the biggest lie in presidential campaign history.
Friday, December 23, 2011
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
How the Payroll Tax Wrangling Shows the Shifting of the 2012 Landscape
Josh Marshall at TalkingPointsMemo talks about “inflection points” in terms of political campaigns or debates. Recently, he talked about waiting on the point when Newt Gingrich starts leading Mitt Romney in the Intrade Markets for the Republican nomination. But there is another debate occurring in American politics, and while the details will not be followed outside the Beltway, the overall point will shape the 2012 election.
Congress is now wrangling over completing the spending bills for Fiscal 2012 (which began more than two months ago) and extending the payroll tax holiday and emergency unemployment benefits. House Speaker John Boehner is now complaining that Democrats are holding the government hostage to get the payroll tax cut passed (why Republicans generally oppose this effort, and where the Republicans have now found themselves on tax issues generally, is inexplicable). But of course Boehner does not give a wit about shutting down the government. Republicans have been threatening to do that all year.
But Boehner’s complaint is fascinating. He does not actually think that the Democrats in the Senate want to shut down the government, but he is now deathly afraid that if it were to happen, he and the Republican Party would get blamed for it. He also does not really think there is much chance that the government will shut down, but by invoking the claim of hostage taking, he is trying to reclaim power in the negotiations. (Democrats earlier in the year invoked this claim against Republicans—fairly so—for the same reason.)
But this shows a big inflection point in the 2012 election and the power in Congress. Earlier in the year, a shutdown was viewed as a big problem for President Obama because of its actual harm to the economy. But Boehner has now essentially conceded that shutting down the government would be very bad politically for his party, as the public would fault Congressional Republicans. (And with the rising possibility that the architect of the last government shutdown will become the Republican Nominee, this concern becomes acute.) This suggests that there has been a decisive shift in the political mood of the country. Republicans are on the run, and do not want to run on a Congress that shuts down governments and denies middle class tax cuts. This also shows the resulting shift in power in Congress. Boehner has clearly lost the upper hand in negotiations with President Obama and Democrats in the Senate. He is up against a wall if Congress cannot pass the annual spending and the tax and unemployment extensions.
When there is an inflection point like this, it is time to press the advantage. Democrats need to push hard for an extension and expansion of the payroll tax holiday and against paying for it by Medicare cuts or oil drilling. The President should liberally use the veto threat until he gets an acceptable (not necessarily ideal) bill. And if he could find a way to veto a bill, it is clear that he would side with him instead of a Congress with an approval rating of about 9 (people—not percent).
Congress is now wrangling over completing the spending bills for Fiscal 2012 (which began more than two months ago) and extending the payroll tax holiday and emergency unemployment benefits. House Speaker John Boehner is now complaining that Democrats are holding the government hostage to get the payroll tax cut passed (why Republicans generally oppose this effort, and where the Republicans have now found themselves on tax issues generally, is inexplicable). But of course Boehner does not give a wit about shutting down the government. Republicans have been threatening to do that all year.
But Boehner’s complaint is fascinating. He does not actually think that the Democrats in the Senate want to shut down the government, but he is now deathly afraid that if it were to happen, he and the Republican Party would get blamed for it. He also does not really think there is much chance that the government will shut down, but by invoking the claim of hostage taking, he is trying to reclaim power in the negotiations. (Democrats earlier in the year invoked this claim against Republicans—fairly so—for the same reason.)
But this shows a big inflection point in the 2012 election and the power in Congress. Earlier in the year, a shutdown was viewed as a big problem for President Obama because of its actual harm to the economy. But Boehner has now essentially conceded that shutting down the government would be very bad politically for his party, as the public would fault Congressional Republicans. (And with the rising possibility that the architect of the last government shutdown will become the Republican Nominee, this concern becomes acute.) This suggests that there has been a decisive shift in the political mood of the country. Republicans are on the run, and do not want to run on a Congress that shuts down governments and denies middle class tax cuts. This also shows the resulting shift in power in Congress. Boehner has clearly lost the upper hand in negotiations with President Obama and Democrats in the Senate. He is up against a wall if Congress cannot pass the annual spending and the tax and unemployment extensions.
When there is an inflection point like this, it is time to press the advantage. Democrats need to push hard for an extension and expansion of the payroll tax holiday and against paying for it by Medicare cuts or oil drilling. The President should liberally use the veto threat until he gets an acceptable (not necessarily ideal) bill. And if he could find a way to veto a bill, it is clear that he would side with him instead of a Congress with an approval rating of about 9 (people—not percent).
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