Posted on 08/08/2020 2:41:07 PM PDT by Hojczyk
President Trump says he will sign an Executive Order to ease the suffering of those harmed by the pandemic-related shutdowns and to stimulate the economy. Congress has failed to agree on a new package to accomplish these things.
Trump’s Executive Order would include these four components: (1) a payroll tax holiday until the end of the year, (2) an extension of enhanced unemployment benefits until the end of the year, (3) an extension of the eviction moratorium for federal subsidized housing, and (4) a suspension of student loan payments until further notice.
Questions surround the legality of accomplishing at least some of these things via executive order. Trump’s response to that might be, “so sue me.”
There are also questions about the fiscal impact of some of the measures, at least for those who still care about the national debt. In addition, there are questions about the efficacy of a payroll tax cut and the wisdom of extended generous unemployment benefits.
However, as a political matter, Trump’s move looks like a masterstroke. Since the days of FDR, the public has always seemed to approve of presidents who act to ameliorate suffering while Congress diddles. A flurry of activity, even of the futile or potentially counterproductive kind, makes a president look energetic and caring.
In this instance, Trump’s move might well force congressional Democrats to reach a deal. That outcome, too, would be a political win for the president.
(Excerpt) Read more at powerlineblog.com ...
I was way more confident a year ago he would win easily..but with the mail in ballots and the cheating, i am nervous now.
He has Fox behind him, several good Republicans but the Republican party is like it has been for years! and are not helping him at all!
Dems only care about relief for illegals and foreign workers and everyone knows it
It will be trickier. The wall money was at least appropriated to defense, and spent by defense. This money was not earmarked to FEMA.
This part might pass. I’m more doubtful of the payroll tax.
I agree. He seems to kind of have a f it attitude.
Yea. I just read the entire EO. Trump is aided by actually having an Emergency Declaration ( a real one ). In effect. Those give the courts plenty of latitude to bend normal rules.
So. Money will NOT be withheld, but it’s likely taxpayers will owe it come April 21. That’ll be lovely.
You might be missing the point or you’re just being purposefully argumentative. What Trump does will not work to limit what the next Democrat President does. They were lawless before Trump and will be lawless after him. You’re trying yo simplify it by saying he’s usurping the power of the purse. He is not, at worst he is redirecting and making explicit how to use funds already allocated to combat the virus. It’s not a stretch to say directing the money to the people remains in that vein. There will no doubt be those who will argue that it was made to go to the Walmart’s of the world and should continue in that way. This is a debate that we should be all to happy to have.
There’s only one direction that negotiating with the left will take you - and that’s pure socialism. Venezuela is their goal. They are the domestic enemies that the founders warned us about.
What President Trump has done here is force the voters to keep this in mind when they cast their votes in November. It’s almost the reverse of payroll withholding, when you think about it — by letting Americans vote for or against a specific tax obligation right there in the voting booth.
THIS is what I meant when I said Congress is now under tremendous pressure to pass these EO provisions into law.
The main thing, I think, is that it checkmates the Dems to pass the legislation to do all of this in a clean bill.
If you read the orders, you will find that what Trump has done is move funds around that are already allocated and to defer enforcement of other things (payroll taxes) with a promise to use executive discretion to forgive the deferred action. The IRS already has the discretion to forgive and settle tax debt. Trump is just extending this to FICA taxes.
Reagan was great at putting Dems in a corner. Pelosi and Schumer have unwittingly allowed themselves to be backed into a corner by Trump.
“I hope he knows that if he wants real effect he’ll do the hard work of working with Congress on legislation.”
WHAT? You are JOKING right?
You can’t be series! You MUST BE a Democrat.
Ref for self and others:
“(a) The deferral shall be made available with respect to any employee the amount of whose wages or compensation, as applicable, payable during any bi-weekly pay period generally is less than $4,000, calculated on a pre-tax basis, or the equivalent amount with respect to other pay periods.”
I’m sure a lot of people want to know exactly how that’s going to be counted since as written it’s a 7.65% deferment (and same to employer, or double for self-employed!) or else nothing, with no sliding scale as written.
I suspect it’s gross pay + imputed income - pre-tax deductions (like health care premiums and 401k). If so, people need to know so they can tune their 401k contributions to be on the right side of the bright line...
Is it taxable wages? Or gross?
Payroll taxes are FICA and Medicare. The employee pays half and the employer pays the other half. The total comes to about 15% of a persons if they are W-2. So if you get a paycheck you will get 7.5% more in your paycheck till the end of the year. What is the matter with that?
This is as much a gift to consumers as to workers and employers.
So... the Dems will find a debateably “Republican” judge to issue an injunction against this.
They won’t use one that’s obviously their own. That would be suicide.
But there are “Republican” judges that Dem Senators blue-slipped that the Dems can reliably use.
The media won’t let on of course.
SomeCallMeDim seems more appropriate. Or SomeCallMeTroll....
I thought Trump said the taxes would be forgiven?
Nancy Pelosi is mad in the face right now. Mad enough to have a few martinis I bet.
If SCOTUS says this is illegal can’t trump say annnnnd what about DACA
“I don’t want a President writing tax law by fiat. Call me crazy.”
You’re crazy. We face destruction of our whole way of life and you nitpick when we fight back in any way we can. True fascist/communist dictatorship is staring us in the face and you want our side to play by the Rules according to Hoyle. Dems consistently hit below the belt and you want to allow them to keep their pummeling up without fighting back. They play dirty and you hem and haw.
Be like our patriotic forefathers during the American Revolution. King George’s troops stood up in their box formations on the battlefield, and our militiamen hid in the bushes, fought guerrilla warfare against the Brits and decimated them. You would have wanted our troops to form boxes too and be mowed down by the overwhelming British military forces.
There are times in life when you get down and dirty and this is one of them or else you will have no Country left for you to quibble it to death in. Yes, you are crazy. I prefer to fight tooth and nail, even if it means possibly going down with the Ship of State. The only thing standing between us and the end of our culture as we know it, is TRUMP.
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