WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama wants voters to get involved in the debate over extending the payroll tax holiday, and he’s asking them to tell members of Congress to keep the tax cut in place.
“Let your members of Congress know where you stand,” Obama said Saturday in his weekly radio and Internet address. “Tell them not to vote to raise taxes on working Americans during the holidays. Tell them to put country before party. Put money back in the pockets of working Americans. Pass these tax cuts.”
Obama’s address directs listeners to the whitehouse.gov website, where an online calculator lets them determine how much money it’s worth to them to continue the 2 percent reduction in the payroll tax that took effect this year. A family with income of $50,000 a year would pay $1,000 more in payroll taxes if Congress does not act by the end of this year to extend that reduction.
Democrats want to expand the reduction in addition to extending it. Republican leaders say they’re committed to passing an extension, fearing political fallout if payroll taxes rise on Jan. 1 on 160 million wage-earners, but the GOP rank-and-file appears divided, with many Republican senators voting against an extension
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