Occupy scores victory against Republicans

[ProSense]

Occupy scores victory against Republicans

by kos

This doesn't happen without Occupy.

Republicans in the U.S. Congress on Tuesday threw their support behind a payroll tax cut extension, trying to blunt charges ahead of 2012 elections of favoring wealthy Americans over middle-class workers.

Until Tuesday, Republicans had been lukewarm on extending President Barack Obama's payroll tax cut for workers, indicating they were open to negotiating it but never explicitly backing a measure, which the White House says will boost the country's sputtering economic recovery.

In the world where Occupy had never happened, Republicans would've held these tax cuts hostage without suffering any ill repercussions. Why would they? The chattering class and Beltway media would be droning on endlessly about deficits and other things that didn't matter.

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A major shift in the payroll debate

[Atman]

1. Not so fast...

The Repubs are still demanding offsetting cuts in other programs. So, you might get a break in your payroll taxes, but then the GOP wants to strip away some other benefit. The sad part is, last I heard Obama seems to be on board with that -- anything to get the payroll tax cut extended. He's just a total sell-out at this point.

.

[ProSense]

2. Where

"Not so fast...The Repubs are still demanding offsetting cuts in other programs. So, you might get a break in your payroll taxes, but then the GOP wants to strip away some other benefit. The sad part is, last I heard Obama seems to be on board with that -- anything to get the payroll tax cut extended. He's just a total sell-out at this point."

...did you hear that. Do you have a link?

[Atman]

6. No link, I heard it from a GOPper on the TV this morning.

Can't recall who was on Morning Joe's show today -- Maybe Max Bacchus, but I don't think so. Anyway, he said that the GOP felt that the tax break should be extended, that people need it...but that the GOP was not prepared to allow it to pass if it was unfunded. They won't approve it unless there is an offsetting spending cut. And then the Dem said that President Obama was inclined to go along with that if it meant the payroll tax break extension would pass.

.

[rurallib]

3. Plus this is a long term chink in Social Security funding

that I fear will be brought back to haunt the nation over and over by Republicans.

[ProSense]

4. Actually,

"Plus this is a long term chink in Social Security funding that I fear will be brought back to haunt the nation over and over by Republicans."

...this will have no impact on Social Security funding. Republican spin will always be.

[dreamnightwind]

10. Can you explain that for me?

How will it not impact SS funding? And what funding WILL it impact? Not being snarky, sounds like you know and I am curious, since I had assumed the payroll tax cut was a bad idea because it would further jeopardize SS.

[TheWraith]

12. The money not taken in in payroll tax is paid for out of the federal budget. nt

[Kahuna]

5. I hope so. But they are most likely trying to set the president up..

by offering him an unpalatable deal so that they can blame him for the tax cuts not being extended. I hope I am wrong.

[ProSense]

7. White House: President Obama will not renegotiate automatic spending cuts

White House: President Obama will not renegotiate automatic spending cuts

by Joan McCarter

A deal's a deal, says the White House. President Obama's promise to veto any bill changing the automatic spending cuts agreed to in the August debt ceiling deal holds.

President Barack Obama isn't open to renegotiating the spending cuts triggered by the supercommittee’s failure to reach a deficit-reduction deal even as some Democrats float the possibility, White House press secretary Jay Carney said Wednesday.

"The president's been very clear on this. The answer is no," Carney said on MSNBC's "Daily Rundown." <...>

"The sequester was designed to be so onerous, to have the kinds of cuts that were so objectionable to members of both parties in Congress that they would never come to pass, that they would force Congress to work hard and reach a compromise that was responsible and balanced to reduce our deficit and deal with our long-term debt challenge," Carney said. "The president believes that the very nature of the sequester needs to stay the same to keep the pressure on Congress to do its job."

One Democrat, Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC), suggested the idea of renegotiating the automatic cuts in exchange for extending the payroll tax cuts set to expire at the end of the year. Of course, Clyburn isn't really in a position to make that offer, being in the minority party in the House, but his position as a member of the now defunct Super Congress means that people listen to him on this stuff.

[loudsue]

8. ONE MORE FUCKING TIME: THOSE PAYROLL TAXES ARE REDUCING SOCIAL SECURITY BENEFITS!!!!

We've had this debate already, and the meme keeps sneaking its way back onto this board and all the other liberal boards, by people who are REALLY REALLY GOOD at infiltration.

My husband's about to retire. Yes, he gets more actual money in his paycheck right now because of this "payroll" tax cut. But he also gets a statement from Social Security Administration.

His projected retirement benefit of social security has GONE DOWN because the "payroll" tax they are cutting is how much someone contributes to

SOCIAL SECURITY

in their check. This reduces their

SOCIAL SECURITY BENEFITS

!

What does it take to be able to overcome the propaganda here????

[johnaries]

9. No need to YELL! It does NOT reduce SS benefits.

Yes, it the SS payroll tax that is being cut, but the cut itself does not affect benefits. Don't buy into the GOP lie that SS is insolvent. It is not.

[loudsue]

11. That is NOT true. It most certainly DOES reduce benefits!

Look into it! For those people who have not yet become eligible for beneifits, and who are paying social security out of their payroll checks, their benefits most certainly ARE going lower.

[TheWraith]

13. Screaming doesn't make your point true. The money going into SS is the same.

The money not coming in via payroll taxes is paid for out of the federal budget.