Pelosi: GOP Out To Get Middle Class

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) Thursday blasted Republican efforts to offset an extension of payroll-tax cuts set to expire at the end of December, but said House Democrats remain open to “reasonable, pay-for” options.

Democrats sought to pay for the tax holiday with a 3.5 percent surtax on incomes exceeding $1 million. Republicans countered by proposing a freeze on federal employees’ salaries and downsizing the federal workforce by cutting 200,000 jobs as a means to pay for the tax break. 

The House’s top Democrat, however, shied away from endorsing Republicans’ proposal, arguing that the offsetting proposal would eliminate hundreds of thousands of jobs. 

“It doesn’t make any sense, except it is consistent with the Republican principle that they are here for the one percent,” Pelosi said. “But yes, we would certainly be open to reasonable pay-fors for the tax cut.”

Pelosi continued her tirade against GOP efforts to offset the payroll-tax cut and said Republicans “are out to get the middle class.”  

“I don’t know what the middle class ever did to the Republicans that they’re so out to get them,” Pelosi said. “But whether it’s job creation, economic growth, the tax code and the rest — the deck is getting stacked against the middle class.”

Republican Suggests Obama Wanted Super Committee To Fail

Rep. Bill Huizenga (R- Mich.) accused the Obama administration Tuesday of intentionally benefitting from the Super Committee’s failure.

“It appears from the outside that they [Obama’s administration] made a calculated political move,” Huizenga told TRNS about the Super Committee’s failure. “They didn’t do much to help that process along and if there was a real desire to help that, the President could have and should have gotten engaged.”

Due to the Super Committee’s failure to reach a deficit reduction deal by Thanksgiving, there will be $1.2 billion in mandatory cuts in government spending beginning in 2013. Around $600 billion will be cut from defense and the rest will be deducted from domestic spending.

“We are going down a dangerous road here,” Huizenga remarked to TRNS.”The thing we need to do to revive this is revive our economy so people will come off of assistance and pay more in taxes.”

In regards to Obama’s proposed payroll tax extension, Huizenga stated that a reformed permanent tax code needs to be instated.

“We are continuing to do economic and tax policy piece meal - a little bit here and a little bit there. We aren’t doing comprehensive reform,” Huizenga said. “If were going to do it, it makes more sense to have permanent tax policy rather than temporary after temporary after temporary tax policy.”

Huizenga mentioned that an ideal tax code would be a flat tax that would eliminate loopholes and tax credits.

Reid Pushes GOP To Accept Payroll Tax Cut Extension

By Adrianna McGinley

The Senate will this week vote on a bill to extend tax cuts for millions of American workers.

The Middle Class Tax Cut Act of 2011 would keep in place a payroll tax rate of 4.2 percent for employees. Employers would continue to pay a rate of 6.2 percent. The revenue generated by the payroll tax funds America’s Social Security program.

The measure is part of President Obama’s American Jobs Act, and has been introduced in the upper chamber by Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.). The White House and congressional Democrats estimate that if Congress fails to act by the end of the year, the average middle-class taxpayer would see his or her taxes go up by roughly $1,500 next year.

Though Republicans pushed Obama to pass the bill last year, at least one GOP’er has come out against extending it because of the fact that Social Security is currently running a deficit. Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) said during an interview on the Fox News Channel that his party may not support the bill due to Social Security concerns, as well as the fact that Democrats have proposed paying for it by raising taxes on the wealthy.

“By taxing the people who provide the jobs, you put off the day we have economic recovery and job creation in this country,” Kyl said. “And that’s precisely what the Democratic plan would do. It would hit those people, the small businesses who we all acknowledge are the ones who create the jobs coming out of economic difficulty.”

Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.), however, championed the bill on the Senate floor Monday.

“The average family held onto $935 more of their hard-earned dollars this year. We need to assure those families that they can rely on that tax cut next year as well,” Reid said.

“Cutting taxes for middle-class families and business should be an area where Republicans and Democrats can find common ground,” Reid added. “This Republican opposition smacks of partisanship. Because this tax cut has President Obama’s fingerprints, Republicans won’t support it even though they know it is good policy for American families and businesses.”

Reid and other Democrats also highlighted a statement made by independent economic analyst Mark Zandi, who said that without the tax cut, “we’d be in recession right now.

“If they don’t [renew and increase the payroll tax cuts], at the very minimum, we’ll likely go into recession,” Zandi added.

Increasing Payroll Taxes Would Preserve Social Security, Say Dems

A group of four Democrats partnered on Wednesday to unveil legislation aimed at protecting Social Security benefits for America’s seniors.

Republicans have lately been citing government reports showing that the popular entitlement could run out of money by 2038, and most of the GOP candidates for President have embraced the idea of restructuring the program for younger Americans. Some Democrats, however, have argued that drastically reforming the program is a bad idea.

“Despite a lot of right wing rhetoric to the contrary, Social Security is not going broke and has not contributed one penny to our serious deficit problem,” said Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.)

(Click here to see photos from today’s press conference)

Currently, Social Security is funded through payroll taxes paid by employers and employees. The cap on annual income subject to the tax is $106,800. According to the Social Security Administration, the program currently has a $2.5 trillion surplus and the Congressional Budget Office has reported that it can pay out every benefit to every eligible American for the next 27 years.

The Keeping Our Social Security Promises Act, proposed by Sanders, Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) and Sens. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) would strengthen Social Security’s coffers by applying the tax to any income generated over $250,000 per year. The concept, as noted by Sanders, was advocated for by President Obama back in 2008, who called for raising the payroll tax on wealthy Americans.

“This is a simple fix. It solves the whole problem in a way that should be embraced by everyone,” Boxer said.

Tension arose when a reporter asked the lawmakers to weigh in on President Obama’s recent proposal in the American Jobs Act to extend the payroll tax cut for another year.

“Do I think the middle class deserve a tax break in the midst of this horrendous recession?” Sanders asked. “I d, but I would very much prefer it not come from continuing the cuts that we’re seeing in the payroll taxing.”

Boxer, however, was adamant that the payroll tax cut bill has legislation built within it to restore funds. 

Yet as Boxer was defending the payroll tax cut, DeFazio was shaking his head in rejection of her claim that the funds would be restored.

“No more tax cuts,” Defazio declared angrily. “We have the economy that tax cuts will give us and it is pretty pathetic, isn’t it?”

Obama’s proposed extension of the payroll tax cut holiday has received criticism from both sides of the aisle.