Political Quotes

“our country is facing a very serious financial crisis. We have seen what happened in Europe. We had some numbers on the stock market for a while. But if I understand what happened, there was a very real crisis facing the Europeans, and at the very last moment they took some action that was received positively. But they are not out of the woods yet and neither are we. Our debt is surging. We have gone from 5 years ago a $161 billion deficit to a $450 billion deficit in President Bush's last year to $1.2 trillion in President Obama's first year, $1.3 trillion in President Obama's second year, $1.2 trillion this year, and over $1 trillion predicted in deficits next year. We are going to have a proposal that comes before us to provide a payroll holiday, and it is sold as avoiding a tax increase. That is what the President says it is; we are avoiding a tax increase. So we ought to ask ourselves exactly how that is so and if it is so. Let me just say, I don't think that is accurate. Two years ago, there was an employer payroll tax holiday that went only to the employer. It cost the Treasury $7.6 billion. Last year, as part of the final compromise, a bipartisan compromise, it was agreed that there would be a 2-percent tax holiday for working persons. So instead of paying 6-plus percent on your withholding tax, you would pay 4. That cost $111 billion for that year. So the President said: If we don't extend that, we are going to have a tax increase. But is he accurate?…”