When members of Congress go back to the table soon to decide on program spending cuts to deal with the national deficit/debt — after passing the so-called fiscal cliff legislation — they ought to undo the damage they just imposed on working people and the “real” middle class.
They effectively provided a 2 percent tax increase in people’s paychecks by allowing the Social Security payroll reduction, which had been in place for two years, to expire. This will further reduce working people’s and true middle class paychecks at a time when those individuals need every single penny.
The whole focus in newspaper accounts and electronic media has been the Bush tax cuts that were not extended for taxpayers making an income over $450,000.
The real “tax” increase was the one on the average working person and true middle-class individuals and families who will lose 2 percent of their salary and wages because Congress failed to compensate and extend this past Social Security payroll reduction going forward.
Congress ought to come up with the national spending cuts necessary to provide Americans with a tax cut equal to what they had under the Social Security payroll reduction. If not, they have been exposed once again that talk is cheap and that deeds are needed when it comes to their expressions about how they are friends of the “middle class.”
Stop the targeted tax cuts and special tax incentives for special interests that appeared in this enacted fiscal cliff legislation and give back to the American working people and “real” middle class who have already bailed out the banking and financial institutions that were supposed to be too big to fail.
Deborah K. Smarth
Manalapan