Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I rise to speak about the issue of the payroll tax and the tax cuts we are trying to enact, very similar to what we did last year when Democrats and Republicans came together at the end of the year, right before the holiday season, and said, we have to take action now to make sure we are doing everything possible to jump-start the economy. One of the elements of that agreement last year--and, again, it was bipartisan--was a cut in the payroll tax. Just so people understand my point about this tax--and I will deal only with the employee side--we know that employees in the United States, when they make their payroll tax payment, it is 6.2 percent of their earnings. Last year we cut that from 6.2 to 4.2. It was the right thing to do and it had a positive impact. What I am trying to do now--and, again, I think this is bipartisan--is to not just do that again, but we want to cut it even more so that we can reduce it in half, so instead of paying 6.2, an individual would pay 3.1. This is a very basic idea, and what we are trying to do are two basic things. No. 1 is to give folks out there more take-home pay--kind of dollars in the pocket. Last year, it was roughly $1,000 per worker. The impact on a family--the positive impact of that--is very significant. This year, we hope it will be greater. We hope we can enact something where the take-home pay savings are increased, depending on how one argues it, almost $1,500.…”