Washington Battles over Extending the Payroll Tax Cuts

The deadline for extending the payroll tax cut is December 31, 2011 ‘ and politicians in Washington are in gridlock over what to do. President Obama would like to extend the tax holiday (already currently in place) for one more year and cut the employee’s share of the payroll tax from 4.2% to 3.1%. Obama warned Congress not to attach any other ‘extraneous’ provisions to the payroll tax cut bill or else he would veto it. However, give the nation’s $15 trillion debt, Republicans on Capitol Hill are wise to be wary of passing any more legislation without figuring out how to pay for it first.

For more information about this topic, please see the following articles:

• http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/44/post/obama-warns-congress-not-to-attach-payroll-tax-cut-approval-to-keystone-pipeline/2011/12/07/gIQAxwRAdO_blog.html
• http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/12/07/us-usa-taxes-payroll-idUSTRE7B61IB20111207
• http://www.cnn.com/2011/12/07/election/2012/congress-payroll-tax-cut/?hpt=hp_t2
• http://www.csmonitor.com/Business/Economist-Mom/2011/1207/The-muddled-economics-of-the-payroll-tax-cut

---