These Capricious Critters in Control

Liberals Pretending to Care
for the "Little Guy"

One year ago, the fierce debate on Capitol Hill and in the pages of our State Run Media was all about the payroll tax cut. Today, the debate rages yet again, just as ferociously, only this time the roles are reversed. It makes one wonder if these people we elect understand at all that we, the little people, even pay attention to their antics.

Do the bloggers and actual "journalists" not realize that their works are products for posterity? Perhaps the belief that many of us are too lazy to check recent events is justified since such intellectual sloth has been fostered for decades by the propagators of poppycock. But anyone with a few minutes to spare, a modicum of curiosity and a computer -- or a library card -- can retreat into history and read the opinions of people who now champion the opposite position.

Such is the case with the current "payroll tax cut" extension. The same mission that Democrats -- both political and pundit -- vehemently opposed one short year ago and for decades previous. The same mission that Democrats -- most notably President Barack Hussein Obama -- now use as a weapon to attempt to bludgeon Republicans in a general election season.

Obama spoke in Osawatomie, KS -- despite his opening claim of it being good "to be back in Texas" -- where his campaign-on-our-dime continued. The same man who brokered a deal with Republicans in December of 2010 for a temporary payroll tax "holiday" was speaking where Teddy Roosevelt had a century earlier, ostensibly as a form of comparison between the two presidents. (One wise soul suggested that Obama should try being the president rather than trying to be a past one.)

The payroll tax break of 2010 caused much consternation among Democrats across the nation since it was the first time the Democrats ever allowed a rate cut in the program since its inception. With Social Security edging toward insolvency in the near future, and its sole funding source historically having been payroll taxes, it is understandable that anyone would have been skeptical of a reduction. It seems, though, that even liberal Democrats underestimated Obama's Socialist tendencies.

As it turns out, the payroll tax holiday did not create a dent in the coffers of the trust fund. How can that be, you ask? Simple; Obama's redistributive shenanigans have breached the once impenetrable wall between the trust fund and the general fund. What that means is that now the federal government can take tax money for any project and pump it into the Social Security fund. What's odd is that they have been raiding that fund for years to spend on general fund projects while resisting any attempts to replenish it from any other source. Obama waved his wand and poof, now they can.

Here's the rub, however, which will explain the title of this article: in 2010 when the White House first floated the idea of a payroll tax holiday, Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.), the Senate Subcommittee On Retirement and Aging Chair, expressed concern. At the time she said,  "I'm concerned this could be the beginning of the slippery slope to getting rid of the payroll tax and cause a way of getting rid of Social Security as a public issue in the way of heading to privatization."

Ironically, the White House used these words as a way to assuage those fears:

"It is explicitly temporary and there's a general revenue transfer in the bill so it will not negatively impact the social security trust fund at all."

Further, Ryan Grim of the Huffington Post wrote an article on December 8th, 2010 in which he moaned about the expiration being labelled a "tax hike", and then wrote another in September of 2011 in which he labels the pending expiration a...tax hike. To add to the irony, Ryan's first article was titled Tax Cut Deal A Hidden Threat To Social Security, suggesting that he was totally against it. The second article is titled Paul Ryan, Herman Cain Push For Tax Increases On Middle Class. 

Aha! There it is; if it can be used as a tool against Republicans, it's got to be good!

To fully understand what the end game is for Obama in all this confusion, it is this; getting the "rich" to pay for your retirement while you enjoy a payroll tax "holiday". If the general revenue transfer is also "explicitly temporary", it stands to reason that it will also expire with the tax cut. So in order for Obama to raise the taxes on the "wealthy", he needs the payroll tax cut extended.

You gotta give credit where credit is due. The man is nothing if not cunning.

Sphere: Related Content