Political Quotes

“let's not cook the books. Let's have a straightforward debate about who is getting the tax breaks that have been proposed, and whether we can do better. We hear a lot about income tax, but what about payroll tax? Let's not ignore payroll taxes when we talk about who is carrying the tax burden today. Workers in this country pay a 7.65-percent payroll tax to finance the Social Security Program. They pay an additional 1.45 percent payroll tax to finance the Medicare Program. Social Security taxes are collected on the first dollar earned--up to $62,700. Medicare taxes are collected on all earned income. The majority of workers in this country pay more in payroll taxes than they do in income taxes. So it is insulting for many of these workers to hear some around here talk about low income workers as if they pay no taxes. You will actually hear some Members come to this floor and argue that lower income workers do not get much of a tax break because they do not pay many taxes. They will say lower income workers do not get a full $500 per child tax credit because they do not pay enough in taxes. This is just not true. A tax is a tax for most folks--whether they are income taxes or payroll taxes or estate taxes or something else. But by counting only income taxes and ignoring payroll taxes, it means that upper income taxpayers get more of the tax breaks, while lower and middle income workers get less. So we have to do better.…”