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Aug 11, 2020

Biden Attacks Trump's Attempt To Defer F.I.C.A.

      From the Tampa Bay Times:

Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden has a new message for Florida seniors: President Donald Trump’s latest attempt to fix the economic crisis could put their retirement at risk.

In a new ad that will air exclusively in the Sunshine State, Biden’s campaign accuses Trump of stealing from Social Security to pay for a new round of coronavirus relief. ...

The Biden ad equated Trump’s proposal [to defer F.I.C.A. for three months] to “slashing hundreds of billions of dollars from the Social Security trust fund every year.” ...

8 comments:

  1. Did Mr. Biden support the 2% cut to FICA when he was VP?

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  2. Same dem lie and scare tactic every 4 years. When will they air the commercial of pushing Granny off a cliff in her wheelchair?

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  3. 10:28 - "TROLL" - is that the best you can come up with. Every Democrat praised the 2% reduction as a tremendous benefit to the American worker. I don't agree with the EO because we can't afford it, but lets be honest that Mr. Biden is against it because President Trump enacted it.

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  4. Well, lets look at facts 10:51 Can you do that?

    This isnt 2% this is ALL.

    This is not a tax holiday, it is a tax deferment. In little words that means you have to pay all the tax back in January.

    SO you are comparing apples to giraffes.

    But thanks for playing troll, back under you bridge and wait for billy goats.

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  5. The EO says the tax is just deferred, and so if that comes about there will be little effect on the Trust Funds (loss of a few months interest on the amount deferred). If the tax is forgiven, as Trump promises he will try to do if he wins in November, that would have an effect, except the Secretary of the Treasury says that the money will be made up from general revenues. So if that were to happen, then again there will be little (or no) effect.

    However, Trump has also stated that he wants to make permanent cuts to the payroll tax. That would be a threat to Social Security.

    (By the way, the CPI-W for July came out today, and it is 1% above the baseline for determining the COLA for next year. So if the August and September CPI-Ws aren't too different from July's, then the COLA will be about 1%.)

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  6. "The EO says the tax is just deferred, and so if that comes about there will be little effect on the Trust Funds (loss of a few months interest on the amount deferred). If the tax is forgiven, as Trump promises he will try to do if he wins in November, that would have an effect, except the Secretary of the Treasury says that the money will be made up from general revenues. So if that were to happen, then again there will be little (or no) effect."

    I think you're relying on some big and misguided assumptions here. I think it's fairly obvious that Trump is trying to force Congress's hand to get what he wants, by, through unilateral (and likely unlawful) action, creating a huge tax-bomb that Congress will have to address sooner or later, lest they face the ire of many angry constituents. I think it's also obviously intended to serve as a threat to gin up support (vote for me and you won't have to pay the taxes back after the election). Additionally, I don't think it's safe to assume this Congress (or the next) will have much appetite for refunding the trust fund even in the event they act to make sure the deferred taxes don't have to be repaid next year.

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  7. Trump's promise to permanently cut the payroll tax if re-elected means he wants to kill Social Security, since that's what funds Social Security benefits. It's pretty clear. If you want to save Social Security, you have to vote against Trump.

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