Irksome
Those anti-tax Republicans aren’t so anti-tax after all, unless you’re in the wealthiest category of the American taxpayer.
If you’re among the working stiffs like most of us, some Republicans don’t think you’re paying your fair share of the federal payroll tax. It’s a tax President Barack Obama was able to get reduced from 6.2 percent of your wages down to 4.2 percent. It was reduced last year during another round of spending compromises between the White House and Republicans in Congress.
If it’s not extended, it will return to 6.2 percent on Jan. 1.
Make no mistake, the reason the Republicans are even considering letting the tax reduction expire is because Obama gets credit for this break to the American taxpayer.
These are the same people who fought tooth and nail to prevent the marginal tax rate on the nation’s super rich to revert back from 35 percent to the 39 percent rate it was during the Ronald Reagan years, through the 1990s, when Bill Clinton was president and the nation experienced economic prosperity.
The payroll tax is designated for Social Security, and the most anyone can benefit from the 2 percent reduction is $2,136. They stop deducting for the tax once you start earning more than $106,600. But most people aren’t earning that much. If you’re taxable earnings total $40,000, you’re getting an $800 break from Uncle Sam.
In a year’s time, the loss to the federal treasury is $120 billion a year. Had the government allowed the Bush-era tax cuts to expire on the wealthiest Americans, it would have generated an additional $700 billion a year in tax revenue. But Republicans fought hard to keep the government from doing that. …
Republican should remember there is one thing the rich and the poor have that is of equal value — their vote.
The Hawk Eye, Burlington, Iowa