Congress compromise could hurt in November
Congress struck a tentative deal Tuesday that allows President Barack Obama’s current payroll tax cut to be extended past its February expiration date. Social Security taxes will be kept at a reduced rate of 2 percentage points for another 10 months — a break that will save the average American family about $1,000.
Although the Republican representatives in Congress voted in favor of the extension, the Republican Party is not pleased with its repercussions. A consensus has yet to be determined on how the extension will be funded, which Rep. Dennis Ross, R-Fla., deemed “bad policy.” Taxes will not be increased to pay for the cut, and Congress is trying to avoid a fee cut for Medicare doctors — referred to as the “doc fix” — in order to compensate for the $100 billion price tag attached to the extension.
Some suggestions for funding include an increase in the amount of money federal employees pay into the system and the sale of the government-owned wireless spectrum into the private sector. Neither party was able to agree on either of these or any other solutions.
Obama’s success in persuading Congress to extend the payroll tax cut depended greatly on guilt-tripping the GOP. He urged the representatives to consider that “this is a make-or-break moment for the middle class” and that “the last thing we need is for Washington to stand in the way of America’s comeback.”
The imminent presidential election is a likely explanation for the begrudged compliance of the Republican Party. The consent of the GOP to extend the payroll tax cut is an attempt to not offend its middle-class supporters, who may be turned off by the notion that Republicans are concerned only with the interests of the upper class — a sentiment greatly fueled by the public perception of Republicans as antagonists in the Occupy Wall Street movement.
“Americans are benefiting from [the payroll tax cut], and to take it away at this juncture leaves them open to charges of raising taxes,” said Brown University political scientist Wendy Schiller. “It would severely hamper the GOP presidential nominee’s effort to defeat Obama.”
Considering the recent rise in Obama’s approval rating, the possibility of unseating the incumbent president is becoming increasingly remote for Republican candidates. A recent Gallup poll shows that the president now has an 8-point advantage over the leading Republican, Mitt Romney, with whom he was tied for approval this fall.
As stated by Robert Bixby, executive director of the anti-deficit Concord Coalition, the consensus “seems to be yet another surrender to political convenience over fiscal responsibility.”
The Republican caucus’s reluctant agreement to extend the tax cut may backfire. Conforming to the desires of the DNC and disingenuously appealing to the general public in order to win the election will only paint Republicans into a corner should they succeed in unseating Obama.
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